Metaferroelectrics: Artificial Ferroelectricity in Metamaterials

Metamaterials are artificial periodic structures which represent effective homogeneous medium for electromagnetic fields. Here I show that there exists an important class of such composite systems, metaferroelectrics. They are properly designed metamaterials with non-ferroelectric constituents which, nevertheless, exhibit ferroelectric response. Furthermore, for relatively small samples the effect is anisotropic and strongly depends on the sample shape. Metaferroelectrics will help to understand deeper the physics of ferroelectricity and show enormous potential for applications in the field of nano-optoelectronics.