Research findings recently featured on the cover of the journal Advanced Electronic Materials.
In the last few years, a class of materials called antiferroelectrics has been increasingly studied for its potential applications in modern computer memory devices. Research has shown that antiferroelectric-based memories might have greater energy efficiency and faster read and write speeds than conventional memories, among other appealing attributes. Further, the same compounds that can exhibit antiferroelectric behavior are already integrated into existing semiconductor chip manufacturing processes.
Now, a team led by Georgia Tech researchers has discovered unexpectedly familiar behavior in the antiferroelectric material known as zirconium dioxide, or zirconia. They show that as the microstructure of the material is reduced in size, it behaves similarly to much better understood materials known as ferroelectrics. The findings were recentlypublishedin the journalAdvanced Electronic Materials.
Miniaturization of circuits has played a key role in improving memory performance over the last fifty years. Knowing how the properties of an antiferroelectric change with shrinking size should enable the design of more effective memory components.
The researchers also note thatthe findings should have implicationsin manyother areas besides memory.
""Antiferroelectricshave a range ofunique propertieslike high reliability,highvoltage endurance, and broad operatingtemperatures thatmakes themuseful ina wealth of different devices,including high-energy-density capacitors, transducers, and electro-opticscircuits. saidNazanin Bassiri-Gharb, coauthor of the paper and professor in theWoodruff School of Mechanical Engineeringand theSchool of Materials Science and Engineeringat Georgia Tech. But size scaling effects had gone largely under the radarfor a long time.
You can design your device and make it smaller knowing exactly how the material is going to perform, saidAsif Khan, coauthor of the paper and assistant professor in theSchool of Electrical and Computer Engineeringand the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech. From our standpoint, it opens really a new field of research.