Bio

Dr. Balke is an Associate Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department and the Director of the Analytical Instrumentation Facility. She received her MS and PhD in Materials Sciences from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.

Dr. Balke’s research focuses on utilizing state-of-the-art atomic force microscopy to understand and discover new nanoscale materials functionality driven by electric fields and potentials for information and energy technology. This encompasses electromechanical, mechanical, and transport phenomena in inorganic materials and across fluid-solid interfaces.

Publications

• Competing polar phases in 2D ferroelectric transition metal thio- and selenophosphates , Applied Physics Letters (2025)
• Electrochemical Strain Measurements with Atomic Force Microscopy: Principles and Applications , ACS electrochemistry. (2025)
• Impact of CuInP2S6–metal interfaces on the stabilization of polar phases and polarization switching , npj 2D Materials and Applications (2025)
• Nanoscale Polarization-Dependent Young’s Modulus of Ferroelectric BaTiO₃ Single Crystals , ACS Nano (2025)
• Strain-induced lead-free morphotropic phase boundary , Nature Communications (2025)
• (Invited) Probing Local Ion Insertion through Operando AFM , ECS Meeting Abstracts (2024)
• Aluminum/SmCo5 composites for structural and magnetic applications , Journal of Materials Science (2024)
• Current understanding of electrochemical strain microscopy to visualize ion behavior on the nanoscale , Current Opinion in Electrochemistry (2024)
• Effect of sub‐coercive degradation on the local piezoelectric properties in lead zirconate titanate ceramics , Journal of the American Ceramic Society (2024)
• Role of Lattice Flexibility on Electrochemical Ion Insertion: Structural Dynamics in WO₃ vs WO_2.9 , ECS Meeting Abstracts (2024)