Lu Group

Our group focuses on the multiscale order and disorder of polarisation in functional materials under external stimuli. Using combined experimental and theoretical methods, we uncover the structural origins of polar responses from the atomic to the macroscopic scale, and apply a local-structure strategy to design advanced polar functional materials.

Electrical polarisation is a fundamental order parameter in materials. Its spatial alignments and responses to external stimuli such as temperature, light, strain and electric or magnetic fields underpin many technologically important applications, including high-energy-density capacitors, sensors and actuators, pyroelectric and electrocaloric devices for energy harvesting and non-volatile memories.

Within a material, polarisation can be ordered or disordered across a wide range of length and time scales. This multiscale arrangement, from local dipoles and polar nanoregions to domains and grains, governs how the material responds to environmental change and hence the resultant functionalities. Our group applies cutting-edge experimental and theoretical techniques, and develops new methodologies, to study the response of polarisation to external stimuli and to trace its structural origins across multiple length and time scales.

We primarily focus on the critical role of local chemistry in polar displacements and polar configurations. We have established an integrated synthesis-characterisation-modelling pipeline that identifies hidden local-chemistry and correlated-disorder descriptors and connects synthesis and processing with structure and functionality. Using these descriptors as design strategies, we discover and develop novel polar functional materials.