This special issue represents the Proceedings of The 9th Asian Meeting on Ferroelectrics (AMF-9), jointly with The 9th Asian Meeting on Electroceramics (AMEC-9), namely AMF-AMEC-2014, was held on October 26–30 2014 at Shanghai International Convention Center, Shanghai, China, organized by Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The Asian Meeting on Ferroelectrics (AMF) is a series of meetings held biennially and are endorsed by the Asian Ferroelectric Association (AFA). The first Asian Meeting on Ferroelectrics (AMF-1), initiated by Prof. Xi Yao, was held in Xi'an, China in 1995. Then, the meeting was held in Singapore (1998, AMF-2), Hong Kong, China (2000, AMF-3), Bangalore, India (2003, AMF-4), Noda, Japan (2006, AMF-5), Chinese Taipei (2008, AMF-6), Jeju, Korea (2010, AMF-7) and Pattaya, Thailand (2012, AMF-8). The AMF provides a platform for ferroelectric researchers to discuss and exchange ideas and experiences, and to advance fields of ferroelectrics in Asia as well as other parts of the world.
The conference attracted more than 712 attendees, including 414 students and 298 regular participants. They were from mainland China, Thailand, Korea, Japan, India, Malaysia, United States, France, Germany, Russia, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Taiwan, among other countries, and 20 companies and publishers took part in the exhibition on the conference.
During the three-day conference, there were 4 plenary lectures, 102 invited talks, 186 oral presentations, and 396 posters. In particular, the plenary lectures highlighting the research areas of advanced and emerging interests were conducted by: Prof. Qi-Kun Xue, “Atomic Level Control of Quantum Material Growth: from Quantized Anomalous Hall Effect to High Temperature Superconductivity”; Mr. Hitoshi Saito, “Recent FRAM Progress and Beyond”; Prof. Clive A. Randall, “Nature and Dynamics of Point Defects in the Processing and Associated Electrical Properties in Ferroelectric and Related Materials”; and Prof. Jürgen Rödel, “Lead-free Piezoceramics: Excitement, Disillusionment, Transfer”, respectively.
127 papers were selected for publication in the proceedings of AMF-9. The topics covered a very wide spectrum: 1) Ferroelectric, Relaxor Materials: Phase Transition and Critical Phenomena; 2) Piezoelectrics and Applications: Transducers, Actuators, MEMS, NEMS, SAW, etc.; 3) Multiferroic and Magnetic Materials; 4) Lead-Free Piezoelectrics: Design, MPB, PPT; 5) Advances in Microstructure Characterization: Synchrotron X-ray, Neutron Scattering, PFM, MFM etc.; 6) Memory Applications: High-k Dielectrics, FeRAM, RRAM, etc.; 7) Theories: First Principles Calculations, Monte-Carlo Simulations, Phase-Field Simulations; 8) Novel Phenomena in Oxide Interfaces and Heterostuctures; 9) Domains and Switching Dynamics; and 10) Special Symposium on Frontiers in Dielectric and Ferroelectric Materials. The submitted manuscripts to the journal Ferroelectrics were peer-reviewed following the academic standards of this journal and finally accepted by the publication committee of AMF-9.
We would like to thank the Taylor & Francis Group and Dr. George W. Taylor for their generous support to AMF-9. We also express our sincere thanks and gratitude to all the reviewers for their precious time to review the manuscripts and valuable comments to the authors. We are extremely grateful to the financial support from Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Prof. Yongxiang Li
Shanghai Institute of Ceramics Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai, P.R. China
Prof. Yanfeng Chen
Nanjing University, Nanjing, P.R. China
Prof. Tomoaki Karaki
Toyama Prefectural University, Toyama, Japan
Prof. Yun Liu
Australian National University, Canberra, Australia