A research team from the Institute of Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has identified one-dimensional charged domain walls in a fluorite-structured ferroelectric material.
These walls are extremely small, with a thickness and width of only a few hundred thousandths of the diameter of a human hair. Specifically, this discovery provides a scientific basis for the development of next-generation ultra-high-density devices.
Ferroelectric materials are crucial for future technologies in areas such as data storage, sensing, and artificial intelligence (AI). Storing information within these one-dimensional domain walls could increase storage density by several hundredfold.
The theoretical limit is estimated to be around 20 terabytes per square centimeter, enough capacity to store 10,000 high-definition movies or 200,000 short high-definition videos on a device no larger than a postage stamp.
Let's take a closer look at the following series of photos.
Zhong Hai, a postdoctoral researcher, tests the performance of ferroelectrics in a laboratory at the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, capital of China, on Jan. 21, 2026.
This photo taken on January 21, 2026, shows a sample of a ferroelectric capacitor in a laboratory at the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, capital of China.
This photo taken on January 21, 2026, shows a sample of a ferroelectric capacitor in a laboratory at the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, capital of China. (
