Peter Littlewood1,Charles Liang2,Gian Guzman-Verri3
U Chicago1,University of Chicago2,University of Costa Rica3
Peter Littlewood1,Charles Liang2,Gian Guzman-Verri3
U Chicago1,University of Chicago2,University of Costa Rica3
All electronically driven phase transitions are coupled to local ionic displacements, sometimes as their principal manifestation (e.g. charge density waves, ferroelectrics) and sometimes as a side effect (e.g. magnetism, metal to insulator transitions).<br/>The coupling to the lattice induces elastic strain fields, which have intrinsic long-range interactions, which deform the metric of space and cannot be screened. When strain fields are produced as a secondary order parameter in phase transitions - as for example in ferroelectrics - this produces unexpected consequences for the dynamics of order parameter fluctuations.<br/>I will discuss the consequences of electro-strictive coupling in Mott insulators such as the nickelates<sup>1</sup> and phase change materials such as GeTe<sup>2</sup>, and flexoelectric coupling for the so-called quantum paraelectrics such as strontium titanate<sup>3</sup>.<br/><br/>GG Guzmán-Verri, RT Brierley, PB Littlewood Nature 576 (7787), 429-432 (2019)<br/>SAJ Kimber, <i>et al.,</i> arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.05565<br/>GG Guzmán-Verri, CH Liang, PB Littlewood, arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.14171