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Karin Rabe

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University
Antiferroelectrics: principles and properties
This tutorial will focus on the physics of antiferroelectric materials. We’ll start by considering the definition of antiferroelectricity in analogy to the definition of ferroelectricity. We will develop a theoretical framework for describing the crystal structures and energy landscape in terms of lattice modes of a high-symmetry reference structure, using space group formalism, Landau expansions, and first-principles calculations of phonon dispersion and total energies. We will learn about electric field switching of antiferroelectrics, which will directly lead into an overview of their functional properties, including piezoelectric, electro-optic and electrocaloric effects associated with switching between the antipolar and polar states, and the resulting technological applications. Throughout, we will illustrate and reinforce the essential concepts by looking at prototypical antiferroelectric materials, including PbZrO3, AgNbO3, Sm:BiFeO3 and thin-film ZrO2, reviewing first-principles studies and experimental synthesis and characterization. We will discuss the design and discovery of new antiferroelectric materials using crystallographic databases, high-throughput first-principles calculations, and data mining.   Finally, we will consider the place of antiferroelectrics in the broader context of functional electric-field-switchable polar materials.  
Presenter Bio

Karin Rabe is a computational materials physicist with a particular interest in the use of first-principles quantum-mechanical calculations for the study of phase transitions and the theoretical design of new materials. Born in New York City, she attended the Bronx High School of Science and majored in physics at Princeton University. She received a Ph.D. in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1987) with thesis supervisor John Joannopoulos. Following two postdoctoral years in the theory department at AT&T Bell Laboratories, she joined the Department of Applied Physics and the Department of Physics at Yale University, with tenure in 1995, and moved to the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers in 2000, where she was promoted to Board of Governors professor of physics in 2013. She served as president of the Aspen Center for Physics from 2013 to 2016. Her recent professional recognition includes fellowship in the American Physical Society (2003), the David Adler Lectureship Award in the Field of Materials Physics from the American Physical Society (2008), fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2011) and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2013) and the National Academy of Sciences (2013).

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