Perspective: ferroelectric generators for energy transduction

Smart Materials and Structures · 2026-04-16

Abstract Ferroelectric generators (FEGs) produce high energy electrical pulses for a short duration of time. This process is initiated by a high amplitude shock wave that depolarizes a ferroelectric (FE) material in microseconds. A niobium doped lead zirconate titanate composition (2/95/5 PZT) that undergoes a hydrostatic stress induced phase transformation from a FE to an antiferroelectric phase has been the material of choice for this application. Recent research has led to potential alternative materials. These include lead-based perovskite relaxor single crystal FE materials with larger remanent polarization that could increase the output electrical energy, and lead free materials that have increased remanent polarization and can address the environmental concerns associated with the use of lead-based compounds. A review of energy conversion and the properties of 2/95/5 PZT that led to its adoption provide a framework for research on alternative materials. This perspective article reviews the material properties and geometric effects that contribute to FEG performance and discusses where future materials research efforts might lead to the most significant advances of this technology.

More Reminiscences from George C. Cooper (1920)

2025-06-20

Abstract In his biography of composer Stephen C. Foster, Harold Vincent Milligan recorded reminiscences of the songwriter offered by his friend George C. Cooper, who knew Foster during the composer’s last years in New York. Many of Cooper’s remembrances echo an earlier writing by Cooper for Piano Music Magazine that had been published in 1902. He recalls the songwriter’s compositional and publishing habits and retells a story about their first collaboration, “Willie Has Gone to the War,” for which Cooper wrote the lyrics and Foster the melody. He adds to his earlier account, however, by describing the wintry day on which they wrote the song and recalling that Foster had holes in his shoes and no overcoat. Cooper also reveals that Foster called him “the left wing of the song factory.” Milligan also quotes Cooper’s words about the circumstances of Foster’s death. Christopher Lynch provides an introduction and annotations with notes and corrections, revealing that Milligan was selective in what he chose to include from Cooper in his biography. He omitted, for example, that Milligan had written to him that he believed Foster opposed emancipation during the Civil War.

Jessie Welsh Rose Relays Her Grandmother’s Memories (1926/1934)

2025-06-20

Abstract Jessie Welsh Rose, the granddaughter of composer Stephen C. Foster, first wrote this article in 1926 for the Louisville Courier-Journal. She reworked the article in 1934 for the Foster Hall Bulletin. The later version is reproduced here, with annotations that refer to differences from the original. In the article, Rose offers memories of her grandmother raising her and provides information about her ancestry. She also relays stories her grandmother told her about her grandfather, including the story of her family’s servant Joe inspiring him to write the song “Old Black Joe.” Rose also tells of the origins of the song “Old Dog Tray.” She also offers stories that her grandmother told her of living in New York, where they often attended parties and balls. In the introduction and annotations to the article, Christopher Lynch provides context, offers corrections, and demonstrates how Rose adjusted her narratives about her grandfather for different audiences.

Formulating Foster

2025-06-18

Abstract Decades after his death, Stephen C. Foster’s family and fans seized upon his birth on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1826) and his role in the burgeoning US music industry to mythologize him as a founding father in American cultural history. Hailing him as the father of American music and a symbol of US democracy at the end of the nineteenth century required the collective forgetting of certain facts of his life, particularly his initial rise to fame through controversial minstrel songs depicting nostalgia for enslavement while gradual abolition in Foster’s North and the Emancipation Proclamation phased out the institution throughout the nation. The coincidence in 2026 of Foster’s 200th birthday with the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding invites re-examination of the myth of the founding of American music. In Formulating Foster, Foster archivist and musicologist Christopher Lynch draws upon previously unknown archival evidence to uncover the myth’s origins and expose the deliberate work of the Foster family and wealthy philanthropist Josiah K. Lilly in embedding it in American institutions. By gathering and contextualizing all the remembrances written by acquaintances of the composer, Lynch lays out a roughly ninety-year process following Foster’s death in 1864 that gradually ingrained the myth in American popular consciousness. Stripping away the myth’s artificiality, Formulating Foster presents a more humanizing portrait of the composer, illuminating important new aspects of his life and character and proposing new ways to understand his music.

An Interview with the Daughter of a Friend (1900)

2025-06-20

Abstract In the interview featured in this chapter, Francis Winons discusses her father’s relationship with songwriter Stephen C. Foster. Her father, Thomas Fletcher Grubbs, owned one of the first photography studios in the city of Allegheny, located across the Ohio River from Pittsburgh. She claims that the composer frequented her father’s studio and gave him two oil paintings that he had painted. Winons was in possession of the paintings at the time of the interview. Christopher Lynch provides an introduction and annotations with notes and corrections that indicate the Winons’s story about the paintings being made by Foster is unlikely to be true.

Morrison Foster’s Sketch of His Brother’s Life (1896)

2025-06-20

Abstract Morrison Foster wrote this biography of his brother, the songwriter Stephen C. Foster, and released it just prior to running for Congress as a Democrat in 1896. He portrays his family as an elite, founding family of Pittsburgh. His mother and siblings met the conservative ideals for their genders. He paints a picture of his brother’s upbringing in western Pennsylvania. He portrays his brother as upright and recalls the circumstances that inspired him to write many of his songs. He briefly recounts his last years in New York and early death. Christopher Lynch provides an introduction and annotations with notes and corrections.

Macroscale characterization of dielectrophoresis effect on particulate-based ferroelectric composites

2025-05-05

The use of the dielectrophoresis (DEP) process during the fabrication of particulate-based multifunctional polymer composites (MPCs) enhances their effective properties. The reconfiguration of particle alignment through DEP improves connectivity and, consequently, the electromechanical response of these materials. In this study, the motion of a spherical conductive particle subjected to a non-uniform electric is used to isolate electrostatic effects from dielectrophoresis effects. The role of frequency in charge accumulation, redistribution dynamics, and particle motion is analyzed under varying experimental conditions. To estimate the influence of direct charge exchange, conductive particle movement is compared between different cases with and without insulating conformal coating covering the electrodes. Dominant electrostatic effects are found at low frequencies while dominant dielectrophoresis effect increase as the frequency increases.

Magneto-Mechanical Effects in an Atomistic Spin Model

IEEE Transactions on Magnetics · 2025-03-21

A phenomenological model of two Co adatoms on a Cu(100) substrate was developed using a hybrid approach with “magneto-displacement” effects taken into account. The phenomenological model used parameters obtained from density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The coupled Landau-Lifshitz (LL) equation and Newton’s equation of motion governing magnetic and mechanical degrees of freedom provide the foundation of the model. The modeled to several key results. A mechanism for ferromagnetic (FM)-to-antiferromagnetic (AFM) transition induced by displacement of the adatoms was demonstrated. Mechanical tunability of magnetic resonant frequencies was shown. Displacement-assisted in-plane (IP)-to-out-of-plane (OOP) switching was demonstrated. In addition, the model demonstrates that mechanical displacement can induce an AFM IP-to-FM OOP transition, facilitated by a reduced external magnetic field.

Recollections from Classmates at the Athens Academy (1905/1911)

2025-06-20

Abstract R. M. Welles’s account of composer Stephen C. Foster’s student days at the Athens Academy in Athens, Pennsylvania, was first presented as a lecture in 1905 and then published in 1911. Welles provides a description of the songwriter’s physical appearance. He quotes another classmate, John A. Perkins, who recalled Foster speaking “Lord Ullins’ Daughter.” He describes the songwriter as not playing sports with other boys, preferring to stay in his room. He claims that Foster composed his first piece of music, “Tioga Waltz,” for three flutes and that it was performed at an exhibition at a Presbyterian church in Athens. Christopher Lynch provides an introduction and annotations with notes and corrections.

An Interview with an Art Dealer (1895)

2025-06-20

Abstract The unnamed art dealer interviewed in this article appears to have not really known composer Stephen C. Foster. The dealer claims to have known Foster was skilled at painting with watercolors. It had been previously asserted in print that Foster had painted with watercolors in his youth, and this art dealer appears to have augmented this fact. Interest in Foster as a painter increased following the interview. In September of 1895, two oil paintings purportedly by Foster were displayed at the Pittsburgh Exposition alongside other “relics” from the composer’s life. Christopher Lynch provides an introduction and annotations with notes and corrections.