Nanostructure engineered apparent ferroelectricity

Ferroelectric materials have been well developed for various applications ranging from sensors to capacitors, memory devices, transducers and actuators. The study of ferroelectrics has recently attracted considerable attentions from chemists, physicist and engineers due to their promising use in energy storage and conversion. In this report, I will present how to create apparent ferroelectricity in non-ferroelectric materials through nanostructuring approach. This will greatly extend the scope of selectable materials that can been engineered to show ferroelectric feature, i.e. apparent ferroelectric materials. This provides an innovative method to design and develop the materials that can overcome the limitation of traditional ferroelectricity. To do so, we will enable to extend the applications of ferroelectricity such as photovoltaics for energy conversion.