Flexoelectricity is a property of a dielectric material whereby it exhibits a spontaneous electrical polarization induced by a strain gradient. Flexoelectricity is closely related to piezoelectricity, but while piezoelectricity refers to polarization due to uniform strain, flexoelectricity refers specifically to polarization due to strain that changes from point to point in the material. This nonuniform strain breaks centrosymmetry, meaning that unlike in piezoelectiricty, flexoelectric effects can occur in centrosymmetric crystal structures.^[1] Flexoelectricity is not the same as Ferroelasticity. Inverse flexoelectricity, quite intuitively can be defined as generation of strain gradient due to polarization. Similarly extending on that, Converse flexoelectricity would refer to the process where a polarization gradient induces strain in a material.^[2]

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The electric polarization ${\displaystyle P_{i}}$ due to mechanical strain of ${\displaystyle \epsilon _{ij}}$ in a dielectric is given by

${\displaystyle P_{i}=e_{ijk}\epsilon _{jk}+\mu _{ijkl}{\frac {\partial \epsilon _{jk}}{\partial x_{l}}}}$

where the first term corresponds to the direct piezoelectric effect and the second term corresponds to the flexoelectric polarization induced by the strain gradient.

Here, the flexoelectric coefficient, ${\displaystyle \mu _{ijkl}}$, is a fourth-rank polar tensor and ${\displaystyle e_{ijk}}$ is the coefficient corresponding to the direct piezoelectric effect.

• Piezoelectricity
• Ferroelectricity
• Ferroelasticity