Prof. Dwight Viehland from Virginia Tech visited SICCAS

The Chairman of 12th International Symposium on Ferroelectrics (IEEE), 2000, and Chairman of Spring and Fall Meetings, Electronics Division, American Ceramic Society, 2002, Prof. Dwight Viehland together with Dr. Jiefang Li from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) visited the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SICCAS) on Jan. 12, 2010. Prof. Viehland is a famous scientist for his distinguished study on ferroelectric materials physics and device applications, especially the ferroelectrics structure and functional devices designing. This visit is arranged to further enhance the research collaboration and academic exchange between Virginia Tech and SICCAS mainly on the issue of non-lead piezoelectric materials structure and processing.

Prof. Viehland delivered a brilliant academic lecture titled “Pb-free piezoelectrics: A collaborative Virginia Tech & SICCAS program –A MWN program”. He showed the latest advancement on the phase transition, domain transformation and ferroelectric properties in the non-lead Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-BaTiO3 (NBBT) single crystals, which were grown by Prof. Luo’s group. Their findings are really impressive, especially the observation of the ferroelectric rhombohedral domains embedded in the inherited tetragonal ferroelastic domain matrix using neutron diffuse scattering and piezoelectric force microscope, and these results are supported in the “Materials World Network: Cooperative Activity in Materials Research between US Investigators and their Counterparts Abroad (MWN)”Program.

Prof. Haosu Luo, Prof. Prof. Qingrui Yin, Prof. Yongxiang Li, Prof. Yanqing Zheng and many other researchers and graduate students of SICCAS, had a lively discussion with Prof. Viehland on these new findings in NBBT system and the research trend in non-lead piezoelectrics. On the afternoon of Jan.12, Prof. Luo, Prof. Qingrui Yin and Prof. Yongxiang Li discussed with Prof. Viehland and Dr. Jiefang Li on the future collaboration between SICCAS and Virginia Tech. Both sides hope to promote the fruitful collaboration in fabrication/structure/property study in non-lead ferroelectric materials. Also an international workshop on non-lead ferroelectric/piezoelectric materials was proposed to be held in the beginning of November, 2010 at Shanghai to facilitate the fundamental study of non-lead ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials in the world.