Submitted Abstract
Antiferroelectrics constitute a class of materials that is rather poorly known. In principle, the image is simple: they are non polar materials that can turn polar when subjected to a strong electric field because they are made, at the microscopic scale, of electric dipoles that may either compensate to zero or all align in the same direction. And yet, only few antiferroelectrics have been investigated in details, and they have not found so far any widespread use that would attract attention to them. Considering that both aspects of the problem are intimately linked together, this project aims at tackling antiferroelectrics from both sides. First, by exploring new antiferroelectric materials, we want to clarify the concept of antiferroelectricity and increase our understanding of this class of materials. Second, by screening their physical properties as a function of an electric field, we want to confirm the intuition that antiferroelectrics can compete as tunable materials, and formulate concepts of applications based on this tunability. Altogether, the hope is to stimulate research in this so-far relatively neglected field.