Superpowers of Ferroelectrics ft. Ipek Efe

In this episode

• What ferroelectric materials are, explained by comparison with fridge magnets
• Why the same ceramic can respond to pressure, heat and light, and what that means for sensors
• How a summer internship at CERN on bismuth ferrite took Ipek from Sabancı University in Istanbul to a PhD at ETH Zurich
• Why ferroelectrics wear out after millions of uses, and how “self-healing” Aurivillius crystals avoid this fatigue
• How shining a laser on a film while it grows let her team watch its polarisation change for the first time
• Her three wishes: more talk between scientific fields, more science communication with the public, and time for side projects driven by curiosity

Key Takeaways

• PhD student at ETH Zurich growing ferroelectric oxide thin films (1–15 nm), materials that combine piezo-, pyro-, photovoltaic and ferroelastic behaviour in one.
• Ferroelectric memories ‘fatigue’ after ~a million–billion cycles as defects pin the polarization; Aurivillius crystals self-heal this via charged intermediate layers.
• A CERN internship on multiferroic bismuth ferrite (switching magnetism with small electric fields, saving energy) set her direction.
• Likes that materials science makes her mindful of everything around her, and that science teaches how to find reliable information.
• Three wishes: more interdisciplinary conversation, science communication as a default institutional expectation, and free time for ‘crazy’ side projects.

Listen on

About the guest

Ipek Efe is a PhD Student at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, where she develops ferroelectric thin films with novel properties. Her doctoral project focuses on Aurivillius ferroelectrics, a family of crystals that self-heal electrostatically, and on engineering their growth to achieve a net polarisation. She holds a BSc in Materials Science and Nanoengineering from Sabanci University, Istanbul, and an MSc in Materials Science from ETH Zurich.

Ipek Efe curated the Real Scientists Nano Twitter account (@RealSci_Nano) from July 10 to July 17 2023. Read all of Ipek’s tweets from that week.