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Ferroelectricity: General approach for designing new ferroelectric materials An innovative computational method could enable the design of new classes of ferroelectric materials. Ferroelectrics, whose spontaneous electric polarizations can be switched electrically, are useful for a range of applications, such as memory or sensing devices. However, relatively few naturally occurring materials are ferroelectric, and, while theoretical methods for designing new ferroelectrics are available, they are usually restricted to highly symmetric systems such as perovskite oxides. A team led by Hongjun Xiang from Fudan University have now developed a more general computational approach that can be applied to any system, and have used it to identify previously unrecognized classes of ferroelectrics. Such an approach could not only enable new ferroelectrics to be discovered, but it may also be suitable for designing multiferroic systems.