Direct probe of molecular polarization in de novo protein-electrode interfaces.

A novel approach to energy harvesting and biosensing devices would exploit optoelectronic processes found in proteins that occur in nature. However, in order to design such systems, the proteins need to be attached to electrodes and the optoelectronic properties in nonliquid (ambient) environments must be understood at a fundamental level. Here we report the simultaneous detection of electron transport and the effect of optical absorption on dielectric polarizability in oriented peptide single molecular layers.

Quantification of internal electric fields and local polarization in ferroelectric superlattices.

Oxide heterostructure superlattices constitute a new family of materials with tunable ferroelectric properties. While theoretical models predict the presence of nanosized ferroelectric domains in these films, they had not been observed as the magnitude of the response functions challenges the limits of experimental detection. Here, a new protocol in a precise variant of piezoforce microscopy is used to image domains in BaTiO(3)/SrTiO(3) superlattices.