Communications of the ACM
Plastic Crystals Could Improve Fabrication of Memory Devices
A novel plastic crystal developed by Hokkaido University researchers has switching properties suitable for memory-related applications.
Credit: Hokkaido University
Plastic crystals with ferroelectric properties developed by researchers at Japan's Hokkaido University could accelerate the development of additional flexible and cost-efficient materials for use in electronic devices.
Ferroelectricity is the property in which a material's atoms switch the direction of polarization when placed in an electric field. These materials are often used to store binary data in memory devices, but organic ferroelectric crystals are unsymmetrically polarized and can fracture at high temperatures.
Hokkaido's new plastic crystals are ferroelectric above room temperature and transition into a more pliable, deformable state at higher temperatures. The molecules can then be aligned in one direction by applying an electric field as the crystal cools, returning it to a ferroelectric state.
As a thin ferroelectric film, the material can help non-volatile ferroelectric random-access memory devices maintain memory when the device's power is turned off. The Hokkaido researchers believe further exploration of the crystal's properties could lead to the discovery of more ferroelectric materials, while chemical alteration of the molecules' constituent ions also could enhance their performance.
From Hokkaido University
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Abstracts Copyright © 2016 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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