{"paper":{"title":"The high K anomaly in ScAlN explained","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"The high dielectric constant measured in ScAlN arises from electromechanical inflation, in which internal electric fields drive lattice strain through the inverse piezoelectric effect.","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"cond-mat.mtrl-sci","authors_text":"Ilan Shalish","submitted_at":"2026-05-05T13:54:08Z","abstract_excerpt":"The integration of scandium aluminum nitride (ScAlN) into functional heterostructures has pushed semiconductor device physics into an extreme piezoelectric regime. Accurately determining the fundamental clamped dielectric permittivity (\\epsilon_33^S) of these alloys remains a major challenge, as standard density functional theory systematically overestimates this specific parameter due to well-known bandgap-underestimation limits. Furthermore, electrical capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements of real-world devices do not yield this clamped baseline; instead, they capture an effective permittiv"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"We demonstrate that this 'high K' behavior is a manifestation of electromechanical inflation, where the enormous internal electric fields of polar heterostructures induce macroscopic lattice strain via the inverse piezoelectric effect. By applying stress-free mechanical boundary conditions to the coupled equations of state, we derive an analytical relation for the effective permittivity: epsilon_eff=epsilon_33^S + e_33^2/C_33. This model quantitatively accounts for experimental observations across the ScAlN alloy range.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"That the mechanical boundary conditions in the experimental samples are truly stress-free, allowing the full inverse-piezoelectric strain to develop without external constraints, and that the internal electric fields in the heterostructures match the assumptions used to derive the effective permittivity formula.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"The high-K anomaly in ScAlN is explained by electromechanical inflation, with effective permittivity given by epsilon_eff = epsilon_33^S + e_33^2 / C_33 under stress-free boundary conditions.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"The high dielectric constant measured in ScAlN arises from electromechanical inflation, in which internal electric fields drive lattice strain through the inverse piezoelectric effect.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"98a024b538c0eccdac967fb2ea52135026c480ecfe8b6b0542cb361521952ac3"},"source":{"id":"2605.03765","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":"af4674ab-f385-445f-a536-e5c9c2cfca90","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-07T15:39:30.367431Z","strongest_claim":"We demonstrate that this 'high K' behavior is a manifestation of electromechanical inflation, where the enormous internal electric fields of polar heterostructures induce macroscopic lattice strain via the inverse piezoelectric effect. By applying stress-free mechanical boundary conditions to the coupled equations of state, we derive an analytical relation for the effective permittivity: epsilon_eff=epsilon_33^S + e_33^2/C_33. This model quantitatively accounts for experimental observations across the ScAlN alloy range.","one_line_summary":"The high-K anomaly in ScAlN is explained by electromechanical inflation, with effective permittivity given by epsilon_eff = epsilon_33^S + e_33^2 / C_33 under stress-free boundary conditions.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"That the mechanical boundary conditions in the experimental samples are truly stress-free, allowing the full inverse-piezoelectric strain to develop without external constraints, and that the internal electric fields in the heterostructures match the assumptions used to derive the effective permittivity formula.","pith_extraction_headline":"The high dielectric constant measured in ScAlN arises from electromechanical inflation, in which internal electric fields drive lattice strain through the inverse piezoelectric effect."},"integrity":{"clean":false,"summary":{"advisory":2,"critical":0,"by_detector":{"doi_compliance":{"total":2,"advisory":2,"critical":0,"informational":0}},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2605.03765/integrity.json","findings":[{"note":"DOI in the printed bibliography is fragmented by whitespace or line breaks. 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