A material or property that exhibits antiferroelectricity, where electric polarization directions alternate in a crystal structure, opposite to ferroelectric alignment.
From anti- + ferroelectric (materials showing electrical properties like iron). Coined in physics in the 1950s to describe materials where electric dipoles point alternately in opposite directions, the inverse of ferroelectricity.
Antiferroelectric materials are nature's way of saying 'no thank you' to uniform order—they prefer chaos at the molecular level, and that contradiction actually makes them useful for technology.
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