Selected from IEEE Spectrum
By Charles Q. Choi
Machine Heart Compilation
Editor: Chen Ping
The researchers hope that the artificial rebel ferroelectric capacitors will help further miniaturize electronics.
At present, one of the main obstacles to shrinking electronics is the relatively large size of their capacitors. Now, though, scientists have developed new superlattices that could make capacitors one percent the size of conventional capacitors.
The study was published in a recent science advances.
Address of the thesis: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn4880
We all know that batteries store energy in a chemical form, while capacitors store energy in the form of an electric field. Batteries typically have a higher energy density than capacitors and therefore store more energy. However, capacitors typically have a greater power density than batteries, so they charge and discharge faster.
However, due to the relatively low energy density of capacitors, it is difficult to miniaturize. Now, there is a material that can solve this problem, and that is antiferroelectric. Just like magnets, the charge within this material is divided into N-pole and S-pole.
"Capacitors made from antiferroelectric systems are likely to be much smaller than conventional capacitors, which will help miniaturize electronic circuits," said Hugo Aramberri, a materials physicist at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST). He is also one of the authors of the study.
Hugo Aramberri
However, relatively few natural antiferroelectrics are known. In the new study, Aramberri and colleagues attempted to design artificial structures that resemble antiferroelectric bodies. The study began to shift to ferroelectric and paraelectric.
The team then constructed a superlattice made of lead ferroelectric titanate (PbTiO_3) and strontium ferro titanate (SrTiO_3). It is called a superlattice because lead titanate and strontium titanate themselves are arranged in a lattice structure, which is placed in thin layers that alternate with each other.
(PbTiO_3)_4/(SrTiO_3)_4 Phonon instability and ground state of the superlattice.
The study attempts to optimize the energy storage density and energy release efficiency of the experimental materials at room temperature by testing different characteristics (including layer thickness, layer stiffness, etc.).
Experiments have found that at an electric field of 3.5 megavolts per centimeter, their best superlattice can store more than 110 joules of energy per cubic centimeter. At this field strength, this is better than all known antiferroelectric capacitors.
Parallel coordinate plots for high throughput data.
"The energy storage density of conventional capacitors is 1/100th the energy storage density of our artificial antiferroelectric materials, which means that our superlattices may be used to make capacitors that are 100 times smaller in size," Aramberri said. However, when selecting a capacitor, in addition to energy density, other factors must be considered, such as power density. All of this requires further study to assess the feasibility of the superlattice for commercial use.
Aramberri also points out: "We need to check the amount of lead in the superlattice, because the toxicity of lead greatly limits the application of the technology." Nonetheless, we believe the study provides a proof of concept that human-air rebel ferroelectrics can be tailored by ferroelectrics and paraelectric bodies."
Original link: https://spectrum.ieee.org/antiferroelectric