Why it is Unfortunate that Linear Machine Learning “Works” so well in Electromechanical Switching of Ferroelectric Thin Films

Abstract

Machine learning (ML) is relied on for materials spectroscopy. It is challenging to make ML models fail because statistical correlations can mimic the physics without causality. Here, using a benchmark band‐excitation piezoresponse force microscopy polarization spectroscopy (BEPS) dataset the pitfalls of the so‐called “better”, “faster”, and “less‐biased” ML of electromechanical switching are demonstrated and overcome. Using a toy and real experimental dataset, it is demonstrated how linear nontemporal ML methods result in physically reasonable embedding (eigenvalues) while producing nonsensical eigenvectors and generated spectra, promoting misleading interpretations. A new method of unsupervised multimodal hyperspectral analysis of BEPS is demonstrated using long‐short‐term memory (LSTM) β‐variational autoencoders (β‐VAEs) . By including LSTM neurons, the ordinal nature of ferroelectric switching is considered. To improve the interpretability of the latent space, a variational Kullback–Leibler‐divergency regularization is imposed . Finally, regularization scheduling of β as a disentanglement metric is leveraged to reduce user bias. Combining these experiment‐inspired modifications enables the automated detection of ferroelectric switching mechanisms, including a complex two‐step, three‐state one. Ultimately, this work provides a robust ML method for the rapid discovery of electromechanical switching mechanisms in ferroelectrics and is applicable to other multimodal hyperspectral materials spectroscopies.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Oct 17, 2022
Source ID
10.1002/adma.202202814

Entities

People

  • Alibek T. Kaliyev
  • Joshua C Agar
  • Shuyu Qin
  • Yichen Guo

Organizations

  • Drexel University
  • Lehigh University
  • National Science Foundation
  • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Neural Network Machine Learning.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Machine Learning Algorithms
  • AI & ML - Neural Networks
  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems
  • Space