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Ferroelectrics are seen as promising candidates for the electronics of tomorrow. An experiment at the world’s largest X-ray laser – the European XFEL in Schenefeld near Hamburg – now shows that their properties can be controlled with high precision at ultrafast time scales – using light.
An international team of researchers led by Le Phuong Hoang and Giuseppe Mercurio from European XFEL has discovered a new way to manipulate the properties of ferroelectric materials extremely quickly and precisely with light. This breakthrough could pave the way for faster, more energy-efficient memory devices or electronic components.
Ferroelectric materials are crystals in which positive and negative charges are slightly displaced from one another, generating an internal electric field – known as spontaneous polarization. This polarization can be reversed by applying an external electric field, making these materials ideal for use as nanoscale switches.
In this study, the researchers have now shown that the polarisation can be altered independently of the lattice distortion to which it is usually closely linked. Until now, this decoupling had only been theorised – it had never been observed experimentally. The process was enabled by ultra-short, high-energy laser pulses, which excited the electrons in the material. This allowed the team to change the polarisation extremely fast – in less than a trillionth of a second.
At the SCS instrument, the researchers studied barium titanate (BaTiO₃), a prototypical ferroelectric oxide, using the exceptionally bright and intense X-ray flashes of European XFEL, together with optical lasers. With their measurement techniques, they were able to track changes in the material’s polarisation, lattice structure and electronic state under the same conditions – with a temporal resolution of just 90 femtoseconds, or one-millionth of a billionth of a second.
They observed that just 350 femtoseconds after excitation by the laser, the polarisation had already changed significantly – without the crystal lattice having had time to shift notably. “Our measurements show that the polarization was primarily controlled by photoexcited electrons rather than structural distortions,” explains Le Phuong Hoang.
“This decoupling opens up new possibilities for designing future electronic components,” adds Giuseppe Mercurio. “Until now, achieving specific polarisation states has required applying electric fields and complex circuitry. In future, light pulses could be sufficient. It might also be possible to manipulate magnetic properties in a similar way – for example, in so-called multiferroics, which can be controlled both electrically and magnetically,” Mercurio predicts.
The study demonstrates a fundamentally new approach to controlling materials – not only faster, but also via mechanisms alternative to the typical approach of tailoring material properties by sample design. The researchers are convinced this marks an important step towards light-controlled electronics, with potentially wide-ranging applications in sensing technologies, data processing, and energy-efficient information storage.
About European XFEL
European XFEL in the Hamburg area is an international research facility of superlatives: 27,000 X-ray flashes per second and a brilliance that is a billion times higher than that of the best conventional X-ray sources open up new opportunities for science. Research groups from around the world are able to map the atomic details of viruses, decipher the molecular composition of cells, take three-dimensional “photos” of the nanoworld, “film” chemical reactions, and study processes such as those occurring deep inside planets. The operation of the facility is entrusted to European XFEL, a non-profit company that cooperates closely with its main shareholder, the research centre DESY, and other organisations worldwide. European XFEL has a workforce of more than 550 employees and started user operation September 2017. At present, 12 countries have signed the European XFEL convention: Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. For more information on European XFEL go to www.xfel.eu.
Kontakt:
Bernd Ebeling
+49 40 89986921
Email: bernd.ebeling@xfel.eu
Hoang, L.P., Pesquera, D., Hinsley, G.N. et al. Ultrafast decoupling of polarization and strain in ferroelectric BaTiO3. Nat Commun 16, 7966 (2025).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-63045-6
https://www.xfel.eu/news_and_events/news/index_eng.html?openDirectAnchor=2773&am... Pictures/Illustration
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