Surface ferroelectric devices

The class of ferroelectric materials have a lot of useful properties. High dielectric coefficients over a wide temperature and frequency range are used as dielectrics in integrated or in smd (surface mounted device) capacitors. The large piezoelectric effect is applied in a variety of electromechanical sensors, actuators and transducers. Infrared sensors need a high pyroelectric coefficient which is available with this class of materials. Tunable thermistor properties in semiconducting ferroelectrics are used in ptcr (positive temperature coefficient... 

Chemical and physical processing techniques for ferroelectric thin films have undergone explosive advancement in the past few years (see Ref. 1, for example). The use of PZT (PbZri- cTi c03) family ferroelectrics in the nonvolatile and dynamic random access memory applications present potentially large markets [2]. Other thin-film devices based on a wide variety of ferroelectrics have also been explored. These include multilayer thin-film capacitors [3], piezoelectric or electroacoustic transducer and piezoelectric actuators [4-6], piezoelectric ultrasonic micromotors [7], high-frequency surface acoustic devices [8,9], pyroelectric intrared (IR) detectors [10-12], ferroelectric/photoconduc-tive displays [13], electrooptic waveguide devices or optical modulators [14], and ferroelectric gate and metal/insulator/semiconductor transistor (MIST) devices [15,16]. 

The subject of liquid crystals has now grown to become an exciting interdisciplinary field of research with important practical applications. This book presents a systematic and self-contained treatment of the physics of the different types of thermotropic liquid crystals - the three classical types, nematic, cholesteric and smectic, composed of rod-shaped molecules, and the newly discovered discotic type composed of disc-shaped molecules. The coverage includes a description of the structures of these four main types and their polymorphic modifications, their thermodynamical, optical and mechanical properties and their behaviour under external fields. The basic principles underlying the major applications of liquid crystals in display technology (for example, the twisted and supertwisted nematic devices, the surface stabilized ferroelectric device, etc.) and in thermography are also discussed. 

Work in other display areas has of course occurred. Through the seminal work of R. B. Meyer and the research of Clark and Lagerwall [55] on surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal devices based on chiral smectic C liquid crystal materials, the potential for ferroelectric devices has been fully explored in recent years. With their faster switching capability, they are attractive, and the difficulties over addressing schemes and the manufacture of ferroelectric displays will perhaps soon be overcome to give the marketplace a further liquid crystal device. 

Also surface optical properties of a material sometimes need to be changed, for example in making anti-reflection coating for lenses or reflective surfaces for CDs, the magnetic properties may need to be influenced as in the case of giving a ferroelectric surface to a plastic for magnetic recording, and, perhaps most extensively of all, the surface electrical properties need to be controlled in microelectronic devices used in computers and all modern electronic equipment. 

Barium titanate (BaTiOj), a perovskite-type electro-ceramic material, has been extensively studied and utilized due to its dielectric and ferroelectric properties. The wide applications of barium titanates include multiplayer capacitors in electronic circuits, nonlinear resistors, thermal switches, passive memory storage devices, and transducers. In addition, barium titanate can be used for chemical sensors due to its surface sensivity to gas adsorption. 

The technological and commercial interest in metal oxide surfaces and interfaces has also continued to grow. For decades, oxide surfaces have played a key role in corrosion protection, catalysis, sensors, fuel cells, ceramics, etc. Over the last few years, totally new devices and technologies that rely on the properties of oxide surfaces and interfaces have emerged. Non-volatile ferroelectric field-... 

A method to obtain nano-particles at air/water interfaces has been described in [287]. Spreading of surfactant-coated metallic, semi-conducting, magnetic and ferroelectric nanoparticles on water surfaces results in the formation of monoparticulate thick films which then can be transferred, layer by layer, to solid substrates. These films can find potential applications in advanced electronic and electro-optical devices. Here and further, we give only typical examples of using surfactants in novel technologies. A more detailed description can be found in a new edition of Surfactants Science Series [288]. 

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