Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Ferroelectricity

Metal poles around the bend

Electric dipoles are common in insulators, but extremely rare in metals. This situation may be about to change, thanks to flexoelectricity.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Flexoelectric polarization in a centrosymmetric crystal, and carrier redistribution in a polarized metal vs. a polarized insulator.

References

  1. Anderson, P. W. & Blount, E. I. Phys. Rev. Lett. 14, 217 (1965).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Kolodiazhnyi, T., Tachibana, M., Kawaji, H., Hwang, J. & Takayama-Muromachi, E. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 147602 (2010).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Shi, Y. et al. Nat. Mater. 12, 1024–1027 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Fei, Z. et al. Nature 560, 336–339 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Peng, W. et al. Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02333-8 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Zubko, P., Catalan, G. & Tagantsev, A. K. Annu. Rev. Mater. Res. 43, 387 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Wen, X. et al. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.00323 (2022).

  8. Zabalo, A. & Stengel, M. Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 127601 (2021).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Filippetti, A., Fiorentini, V., Ricci, F., Delugas, P. & Íñiguez, J. Nat. Commun. 7, 11211 (2016).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Edelstein, V. M. Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 2004 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gustau Catalan.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Catalan, G. Metal poles around the bend. Nat. Phys. 20, 358–359 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02402-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02402-6

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing