Congratulations to Professor Jacob Fish

Rensselaer's MSEC affiliated Chaired Professor Jacob Fish has received a three (3) year $298,305 award from The Army Research Office (ARO).

Novel ferroelectric alloys take the form of ionic crystals that have significant long range atomic ordering, leading to polarization and ferro-active mechanical properties. Engineering design and transition of such new alloys to technology are often delayed because of lack of knowledge of fundamental behavior, which can be indirectly quantified by moduli or piezoelectric tensors. For example, discovery and screening of new alloys can be vastly improved at the stoichiometric design phase simply by having some foreknowledge of whether the piezoelectric property of a proposed crystal is sufficient for the intended engineering application.

Such a capability requires a multiscale understanding of the combined electro-thermo-mechanical materials. Through brute force, one can conceivably perform classical or quantum simulations repeatedly but the computation expense would be prohibitive. The microstructure of most ferroelectric materials is polycrystalline with both domain and grain boundaries. Although multiscale modeling methods are available, to date, nearly all developments have centered on covalent crystals containing only short-range interactions. The need for long range Coulomb interactions and a multiscale understanding of electrostatics, both within the context of finite temperatures, pose unique scientific challenges that need to be addressed.

More information on this project. 

Additional projects by Chaired Professor Jacob Fish