This special issue of Ferroelectrics contains 10 selected papers from the 13th European Conference on the Applications of Polar Dielectrics (ECAPD-13), which took place at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, from August 21–25, 2016. It was jointly organized with the 25th IEEE International Symposium on the Applications of Ferroelectrics (ISAF) and the 2016 Workshop on PiezoForce Microscopy (PFM), with Professor Jürgen Rödel, of the Technical University of Darmstadt, and Professor Kyle G. Webber, of Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg as General Co-Chairs. More than 450 delegates attended the joint conferences, with five parallel sessions running throughout the four days. Topics included Fundamental Science, Processing of Crystals, Ceramics, and Thin & Thick Films, Characterization & Properties, Applications of Ferroelectrics and Piezoelectrics, and Materials and Devices for High Frequency Applications and Mobile Devices.
The 50 invited speakers led a programme of more than 300 contributed talks, with five headline plenary speakers: Agnès Barthélémy, CNRS/Thales, France (Ferroelectric-based heterostructures); Alexei Gruverman, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA, (Piezoresponse Force Microscopy – candid camera for the nanoferroelectric world); Jing-Feng Li, Tsinghua University, China, (Niobate-based lead-free piezoelectric ceramics); Beatriz Noheda, University of Groningen, Netherlands, (Domain engineering in ferroelectric thin films); Susan Trolier-McKinstry, The Pennsylvania State University, USA (Piezoelectric Films for MEMS Applications).
In addition to well attended poster sessions, the technical activities were complemented by a student poster competition, a photo-competition, and Women in Engineering discussion. A number of social events ensured that many vigorous discussions continued outside the technical sessions, the highlight being a Rhine cruise, which benefitted greatly from the week's hot and fine weather.
At the conference dinner, Prof. Jan Petzelt of the Czech Academy of Sciences became the first recipient of the ECAPD recognition award “for his lifelong contribution to understanding ferroelectric materials through broadband spectroscopy of ferroelectric, relaxor and low-loss dielectric materials.”
During the conference it was announced that the 14th conference in the ECAPD series will take place in Moscow in 2018, with Professor Alexander S. Sigov of the Moscow Technological University as General Chair.