Speaker： Prof. Gustau Catalán
Institut Català de Nanoscience & Nanotechnology (ICN2), Barcelona, Spain
 
主持人：李法新　特聘研究员
时  间：5月30日（周五）下午2：30
地  点：工学院力学楼434会议室

Abstract: Flexoelectricity is the polarization generated by an insulator when it is bent or inhomogeneously deformed. Unlike piezoelectricity, flexoelectricity is a universal property. It is also an entirely size-dependent property, being very small at the macroscale but huge at the nanoscale. It is precisely the large size of flexoelectricity at the nanoscalethat is fuelling the current surge of interest in this phenomenon. Yet, for all the research, there are still very important open questions about this effect, including the real size of the flexoelectric coefficient, and whether or not the coefficients themselves, and not just the gradients, are size dependent. In this talk, I am going to give an overview of the state of the art in the experimental study of flexoelectricity, emphasizing both the opportunities for applications and the fundamental questions regarding the interplay between flexoelectricity and size.

Biography
Prof. Gustau Catalán graduated in Physics at the Universitat de Barcelona (1997) and gained his PhD, also in Physics, at Queen’s University of Belfast (2001). This was followed by postdoctoral research positions at the at the University of Groningen and at the University of Cambridge. Since 2009, he is an ICREA Research Professor, working at the Institut Català de Nanociènci ai Nanotecnologia (ICN2), where he leads the group of Oxide Nanoelectronics (ON). His research concerns size effects in oxides; specifically, what happens to the functional properties and phase transitions of oxide materials when you make them nanoscopically small. The materials studied include ferroelectrics, multiferroics, and Mott metal-insulators, and the properties most closely examined are magnetoelectricity, domain wall physics and flexoelectricity.
References:
1.     P. Zubko, G. Catalan, A. K. Tagantsev, Annual Review of Materials Research 43, 387 (2013).
2.     H. Lu, et al, G. Catalan*, A. Gruverman, Science 336, 59-61 (2012).
3.     G. Catalan, et al, Nature Materials10, 963 (2011).

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