A University of Arkansas [profile] physicist and her colleagues have examined dielectric susceptibilities of nanostructures (that is the response of their polarization to electric fields) and found novel, seemingly contradictory properties that may change how such materials can be used by scientists and engineers to build electronic devices.

Inna Ponomareva, Laurent Bellaiche and Raffaele Resta of the Universita de Trieste [profile] reported their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Ponomareva and her colleagues examined a property called the dielectric susceptibility of a material, or its polarization response to an electric field. High dielectric responses mean engineers and scientists can build highly sensitive devices, so knowing how to maximize this property in nanostructures will help scientists and engineers make small, efficient electronic devices. The researchers used physical and mathematical models to examine the effect of an electric field on a nanostructure of lead zirconate, a ferroelectric material -- a material that can exhibit a electrical polarization even after the electric field has disappeared.