Auburn University physicists used a light-based measurement to study tiny polarized regions in a modified strontium titanate crystal. Their paper reports evidence that these regions align as the material develops larger-scale electric order.
The researchers also used ultrafast laser fields to line up the regions above the transition temperature and read the resulting pattern. The peer-reviewed study appeared in Physical Review Letters on October 14.
The work concerns a specific material in laboratory experiments. It demonstrates a way to investigate and control electric patterns, not a finished memory device or product.
