Unique opportunities are emerging from the discovery of a method for fabricating ferroelectric nanomesas approximately 10 nm high by 100 nm in diameter from Langmuir-Blodgett films of vinylidene fluoride copolymers. The nanomesas, which are the smallest isolated ferroelectric crystals, retain all the properties of the bulk ferroelectric polymer: crystal structure, polarization hysteresis, a ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition, pyroelectric response, piezoelectric response. They are promising materials for use in high-density nonvolatile random-access memories, or infrared imaging arrays. Further, they are can be combined with other active materials to form nanoscale composites with potentially superior dielectric and electroactive materials. Both nanomesa and nanowell patterns fabricated by the same method may also provide useful templates for forming or contact-printing nanostructured arrays of other materials.
Work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Nebraska Research Initiative, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research of the University of Nebraska.
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