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Ferroelectricity In Free Niobium Clusters, Ramiro Moro, Xiaoshan Xu, Shuangye Yin, Walt A. De Heer
Ferroelectricity In Free Niobium Clusters, Ramiro Moro, Xiaoshan Xu, Shuangye Yin, Walt A. De Heer
Xiaoshan Xu Papers
Electric deflections of gas-phase, cryogenically cooled, neutral niobium clusters [NbN; number of atoms (N) = 2 to 150, temperature (T) = 20 to 300 kelvin], measured in molecular beams, show that cold clusters may attain an anomalous component with very large electric dipole moments. In contrast, room-temperature measurements show normal metallic polarizabilities. Characteristic energies kBTG(N) [Boltzmann constant kB times a transition temperature TG(N)] are identified, below which the ferroelectric-like state develops. Generally, TG decreases [110 > TG(N) > 10K] as …