Negative capacitance in a ferroelectric material is characterized by a state
of the polarization where the polarization charge and the net electric field
oppose each other.
In a 14th January 2019 press release by the University of California, Berkeley,
it has been announced that for the first time ever, they have imaged the
state of negative capacitance.
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Originally Posted by Linda Vu, Berkeley
Capacitors are simple devices that can store an electrical charge. Their capacitance, or ability to store electrical energy, is determined by how much the capacitor’s charge changes when it is connected to a voltage source, like a battery. Negative capacitance occurs when a change in charge causes the net voltage across a material to change in the opposite direction; so that a decrease in voltage leads to an increase in charge.
“The upshot is that the opposite relation between charge and voltage could locally enhance the voltage across the common dielectric material,” said Sayeef Salahuddin, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, who led the overall effort. “The voltage ‘amplification’ gained could be used to reduce the supply voltage requirement in a transistor, thus making computers and other electronic devices more energy-efficient.”
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Linda Vu, Berkeley
The work in this paper directly captured negative capacitance in an atomically perfect superlattice of ferroelectric-dielectric heterostructure, synthesized by the group of Ramamoorthy Ramesh, professor of physics and of material science and engineering. Using state-of-the-art imaging techniques, the researchers mapped out the polarization as well as the electric field with atomic resolution. This allowed them to estimate the local energy density, which clearly showed regions where the curvature of the energy density is negative, indicating stabilization of the steady-state negative capacitance.
The same results were also obtained from state-of-the-art modeling techniques. Salahuddin notes that the confluence of experimental observation and theoretical calculation provides a concrete validation of the negative capacitance concept as well as an atomistic picture of a material in this state.
“We believe that the microscopic insight of negative capacitance obtained in this work will allow researchers to design highly energy-efficient transistors that can exploit the negative capacitance in the most optimum manner,” said Salahuddin. “The implication of our work, however, goes well beyond transistors. Negative capacitance could find use in batteries, super capacitors and non-conventional electromagnetic applications.”
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The results have been published in Nature :-
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0855-y (subscription required)
arVix paper "Negative Capacitance in a Ferroelectric Capacitor" by Khan et. al. :-
https://arxiv.org/vc/arxiv/papers/1409/1409.3273v1.pdf
Press release here :-
https://engineering.berkeley.edu/201...citance-action