Large Electric Field Research Articles

Assessment of large critical electric field in ultra-wide bandgap p-type spinel ZnGa2O4

The spinel zinc gallate ZnGa2O4 stands out among the emerging ultra-wide bandgap (∼5 eV) semiconductors as the ternary complex oxide with the widest gap where bipolar conductivity has been demonstrated. For power and energy electronics, a fundamental property of the material is its critical electric field () although, for ZnGa2O4, is yet unknown. In this work, highly resistive p-type ZnGa2O4 thin films on sapphire and Si substrates were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition to determine both, the remote acceptor concentration and vertical breakdown voltage. Hall Effect measurements confirmed a low carrier concentration at room temperature of ∼1011 cm−3. From vertical metal-semiconductor-metal structures the average E CR has been estimated to be of at least 5.3 MV cm−1, which already is significantly larger than the one of SiC and GaN.

Electric field-induced two-step phase transformation and its contribution to the electromechanical strain in lead-free relaxor-based ceramics

Sodium bismuth titanate-based solid solutions are important lead-free piezoelectrics with potential applications. Large electromechanical strain is of particular interest, which can be realized via the structural change in the relaxor states under an electric field. In this work, a polycrystalline ceramic 0.85Na1/2Bi1/2TiO3–0.15BaZr0.2Ti0.8O3, in which a long-range ordered ferroelectric phase and a relaxor state coexist, has been investigated to unveil the origin of its electromechanical strain using various experimental techniques. An ergodic-relaxor to nonergodic-relaxor transition is first observed under a relatively weak electric field, and a more stable long-range ferroelectric phase is induced under a larger electric field. This two-step phase transformation is accompanied with the process of local polarization freezing as well as ferroelectric domain growth. The domain formation during the reversible phase transition is found to be the main contribution to the macroscopic strain. Our investigation provides an in-depth understanding of the origin of reversible electromechanical strain in the NBT-based relaxor-ferroelectric system.

Multi-scale collaborative optimization of SrTiO3-based energy storage ceramics with high performance and excellent stability

SrTiO3 (ST)-based ceramics are considered as promising candidates for energy storage applications. However, the low polarization intensity in ST-based materials limits their energy storage performance, rendering materials that usually exhibit a low recoverable energy-storage density. In the present study, we have optimized the energy storage performance of ST-based ceramics by using a combined optimization strategy of structural engineering and microstructural regulation. High performance (Sr1-x-y-2φNayBixCaφ□φ)TiO3 (abbreviated as zSNBCT, where □ represents the Sr vacancies) ceramics were thereby designed. During composition optimization, the phase state of zSNBCT was adjusted to a critical point where the relaxor ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition occurred around room temperature. It thus induced a strong relaxation behavior with the formation of ferroelectric polar nano-regions, yielding a high recoverable energy-storage density (Wrec) of ∼6 J/cm3 and a high energy-storage efficiency (η) of ∼92% under a large breakdown electric field of 440 kV/cm, for z = 0.2 sample. Moreover, the breakdown strength (BDS) of the 0.2SNBCT ceramic was further improved by adopting a two-step sintering and spark plasma sintering approach for the microstructural refinement. Simulation models containing grains and grain boundaries were well established using phase-field simulation and finite element analysis. These simulations came to a similar conclusion for the enhanced BDS. Namely, the fine-grained microstructure significantly hindered the growth of breakdown cracks under an applied electric field. Most importantly, the 0.2SNBCT sample showed excellent frequency stability (1−1000 Hz), thermal stability (20−140 °C), and cycling stability (105 cycles), rendering it a promising candidate for energy storage systems. Our designed strategy of structural engineering and microstructural regulation may provide a new paradigm for the design of high-performance energy storage ceramics for pulse power applications.

What Determines the Critical Electric Field of AFE-to-FE in Pb(Zr,Sn,Ti)O3-Based Perovskites?

Electric-field-induced antiferroelectric-ferroelectric (AFE-FE) phase transition is a prominent feature of antiferroelectric (AFE) materials. The critical electric field of this phase transition is crucial for the device performance of AEFs in many applications, but the determining factor of the critical electric field is still unclear. Here, we have established the correlation between the underlying structure and the critical electric field by using in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction and high-resolution neutron diffraction in Pb(Zr,Sn,Ti)O3-based antiferroelectrics. It is found that the critical electric field is determined by the angle between the average polarization vector in the incommensurate AFE state and the [111]P polarization direction in the rhombohedral FE state. A large polarization rotation angle gives rise to a large critical electric field. Further, density functional theory (DFT) calculations corroborate that the lower energy is required for driving a smaller angle polarization rotation. Our discovery will offer guidance to optimize the performance of AFE materials.

Enhanced superconductivity in spin-orbit proximitized bilayer graphene.

In the presence of a large perpendicular electric field, Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene (BLG) features several broken-symmetry metallic phases1-3 as well as magnetic-field-induced superconductivity1. The superconducting state is quite fragile, however, appearing only in a narrow window of density and with a maximum critical temperature Tc ≈ 30 mK. Here we show that placing monolayer tungsten diselenide (WSe2) on BLG promotes Cooper pairing to an extraordinary degree: superconductivity appears at zero magnetic field, exhibits an order of magnitude enhancement in Tc and occurs over a density range that is wider by a factor of eight. By mapping quantum oscillations in BLG-WSe2 as a function of electric field and doping, we establish that superconductivity emerges throughout a region for which the normal state is polarized, with two out of four spin-valley flavours predominantly populated. In-plane magnetic field measurements further reveal that superconductivity in BLG-WSe2 can exhibit striking dependence of the critical field on doping, with the Chandrasekhar-Clogston (Pauli) limit roughly obeyed on one end of the superconducting dome, yet sharply violated on the other. Moreover, the superconductivity arises only for perpendicular electric fields that push BLG hole wavefunctions towards WSe2, indicating that proximity-induced (Ising) spin-orbit coupling plays a key role in stabilizing the pairing. Our results pave the way for engineering robust, highly tunable and ultra-clean graphene-based superconductors.

Electrostatic energy storage performances of La(Ni2/3Ta1/3)O3‐modified Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 lead‐free ceramics

AbstractCeramic capacitors with high electrostatic energy storage performances have captured much research interest in latest years. Sodium bismuth titanate (Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3)‐based ferroelectric ceramics show great potential due to their environment‐friendly composition, high polarization, and excellent relaxor properties. However, the nonergodic relaxor state of Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3‐based ceramics hampers the decrement of remanent polarization, leading to poor energy storage performance. Herein, the (1 − x)Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3–xLa(Ni2/3Ta1/3)O3 ceramics were designed to generate the transformation between nonergodic and ergodic relaxor state. As a result, the ceramics exhibit improved dielectric relaxation, slim polarization–electric field loops, and flattened current–electric field curves due to highly dynamic polar nanoregions. Particularly, the 0.85Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3–0.15La(Ni2/3Ta1/3)O3 ceramics show large breakdown electric field Eb (345 kV/cm), high recoverable energy density Wrec (3.6 J/cm3), and efficiency η (80.6%), revealing potential applications in electrostatic energy storage.

Is electrostrain >1% in oxygen deficient Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 a composition effect?

Abstract For over two decades Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NBT) -based lead-free piezoelectrics have attracted attention due to its ability to exhibit large electric-field driven strain. Compared to the popular Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 (PZT)-based piezoelectrics, which exhibit electrostrain of about 0.3%, the derivatives of NBT-based lead-free piezoelectrics at the ergodic—non ergodic relaxor crossover exhibit larger electric-field driven strain ∼0.45%. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to increase the maximum electrostrain in lead-free piezoceramics. Recent reports suggest that oxygen deficient NBT- based piezoceramics can exhibit electrostrain ∼1%. In this paper we explore this phenomenon and show that the ultra high electric field driven strain measured is primarily a consequence of reducing the thickness of the disc dimension below 500 microns and not an exclusive effect of the composition.

Colossal room-temperature electrocaloric strength aided by hydrostatic pressure in lead-free multiferroic solid solutions.

Solid-state cooling applications based on electrocaloric (EC) effects are particularly promising from a technological point of view due to their downsize scalability and natural implementation in circuitry. However, EC effects typically involve materials that contain toxic substances and require relatively large electric fields (∼100-1000 kV cm-1) that cause fateful leakage current and dielectric loss problems. Here, we propose a possible solution to these practical issues that consists of concertedly applying hydrostatic pressure and electric fields on lead-free multiferroic materials. We theoretically demonstrate this strategy by performing first-principles simulations on supertetragonal BiFe1-xCoxO3 solid solutions (BFCO). It is shown that hydrostatic pressure, besides adjusting the occurrence of EC effects to near room temperature, can reduce enormously the intensity of driving electric fields. For pressurized BFCO, we estimate a colossal room-temperature EC strength, defined as the ratio of the adiabatic EC temperature change by an applied electric field, of ∼1 K cm kV-1, a value that is several orders of magnitude larger than those routinely measured in uncompressed ferroelectrics.

Potential-induced degradation of n-type front-emitter crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules — Comparison between indoor and outdoor test results

We perform indoor and outdoor potential-induced degradation (PID) tests for n-type front-emitter (n-FE) crystalline Si (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) modules and compare their results. The indoor/outdoor acceleration factor for the polarization-type PID (PID-p) of n-FE PV modules is found to be ∼1000 at an indoor test temperature of 85 °C. We observe the progression of the PID-p of n-FE PV modules in rainy days, while their performance is recovered in sunny days. This may be because of the formation of a water film on a module surface acting as a conductive film, resulting in a larger electric field near the n-FE cells in rainy days. The recovery of the PV performance of n-FE modules in sunny days can partly explain the large acceleration factor for the indoor PID test against the outdoor test. • We performed indoor and outdoor PID tests for n-FE PV modules. • n-FE PV modules show polarization-type PID (PID-p) both indoors and outdoors. • The acceleration factor for the PID-p is ∼1000 at an indoor test temperature of 85 °C. • We observe the recovery of PID-p for the outdoor modules in sunny days. • The recovery may be one of the reasons for the large acceleration factor.

TCAD Modeling of High-Field Electron Transport in Bulk Wurtzite GaN: The Full-Band SHE-BTE

Gallium Nitride (GaN) High-Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) actually represent one of the best candidates for medium-high power and radio frequency applications. As they operate at large bias and electric fields, a comprehensive analysis of the high-field transport properties is fundamentals, as hot electrons are expected to play a relevant role for the device reliability. In this perspective, Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) simulations can be a very useful tool for the understanding of the phenomena dominating hot-electron degradation mechanisms. The most-accurate modeling approaches are based on the direct solution of the Boltzmann equation, which is not actually available for the GaN material. In this work, the deterministic solution of the Boltzmann transport equation via the spherical-harmonics expansion (SHE-BTE), as incorporated in a commercial TCAD tool, has been extended to the analysis of GaN electrons. To this purpose, the details of the full-band structure has been derived from DFT calculations as in state-of-art literature works, and the electron density of states, <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$g(E)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , and group velocity <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$u_{g}(E)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , have been calculated for the SHE-BTE for the first time. In addition to this, an accurate calibration of the total scattering rate accounting for nonpolar acoustic and optical carrier-phonon interaction, Coulomb scattering and impact ionization has been carried out against available Monte Carlo data and experiments. The proposed model is also shown to correctly predict the temperature dependence of the electron impact-ionization coefficient and current density up to breakdown.

Preparations for a search of the muon EDM at PSI

Electric dipole moments (EDMs) of fundamental particles violate time invariance and the combined symmetry of charge and parity (CP). The existence of a large muon EDM (muEDM) is made plausible by tensions with Standard Model predictions for semileptonic decays of heavy meson measured at LHCb, BaBar, and Belle, as well as the muon’s anomalous magnetic moment (AMM). A discovery of the muEDM would manifest CP and lepton flavor universality (LFU) violation, revealing physics beyond the SM (BSM). The most sensitive muEDM search to date provides an upper limit of 1.8 × 10−19 e cm (CL 95%), extracted from high-precision data collected to measure the muon AMM. At the Paul Scherrer Institute, we are setting up a dedicated search for the muEDM using, for the first time, the frozen-spin technique to target an ultimate sensitivity better than 6 × 10−23 e cm. This novel technique increases the sensitivity to EDM-induced spin precession by cancelling the AMM-induced precession with the application of a precisely tuned electric field perpendicular to the muon momentum and the magnetic field. In this configuration, the dominant source of precession is the EDM coupling to the large relativistic electric field in the muon rest frame, generated by its motion in a strong 3 T uniform magnetic field. In a precursor experiment, we will apply the frozen-spin technique in a compact solenoid demonstrating a sensitivity of better than 3 × 10−21 e cm, probing uncharted and otherwise inaccessible territory in BSM theories.

Heavy ion single event effect in double-trench SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors

In this paper, experiments on 208 MeV Ge ion irradiation with different source-drain bias voltages are carried out for the double-trench SiC metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors, and the physical mechanism of the single event effect is analyzed. The experimental results show that the drain leakage current of the device increases more obviously with the increase of the initial bias voltage during irradiation. When the bias voltage is 400 V during irradiation, the device has a single event burned at a fluence of 9×10&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt; ion/cm&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;, and when the bias voltage is 500 V, the device has a single event burned at a fluence of 3×10&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt; ion/cm&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;, so when the LET value is 37.3 MeV·cm&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;/mg, the SEB threshold of DUT does not exceed 400 V, which is lower than 34% of the rated operational voltage. The post gate-characteristics test results show that the leakage current of the device with a bias voltage of 100 V does not change significantly during irradiation. When the bias voltage is 200 V, the gate leakage and the drain leakage of the device both increase, so do they when the bias voltage is 300 V, which is positively related to bias voltage. In order to further analyze the single particle effect mechanism of device, the simulation is conducted by using TCAD tool. The simulation results show that at low bias voltage, the heavy ion incident device generates electron-hole pairs, the electrons are quickly swept out, and the holes accumulate at the gate oxygen corner under the effect of the electric field, which combines the source-drain bias voltage, leading to the formation of leakage current channels in the gate oxygen layer. The simulation results also show that at high bias voltage, the electrons generated by the incident heavy ion move towards the junction of the N&lt;sup&gt;–&lt;/sup&gt; drift layer and the N&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; substrate under the effect of the electric field, which further increases the electric field strength and causes significant impact ionization. The local high current density generated by the impact ionization and the load large electric field causes the lattice temperature to exceed the melting point of silicon carbide, causing single event burnout. This work provides a reference and support for studying the radiation effect mechanism and putting silicon carbide power devices into aerospace applications.

Interfacial Charge Transfer and Ultrafast Photonics Application of 2D Graphene/InSe Heterostructure

Interface interactions in 2D vertically stacked heterostructures play an important role in optoelectronic applications, and photodetectors based on graphene/InSe heterostructures show promising performance nowadays. However, nonlinear optical property studies based on the graphene/InSe heterostructure are insufficient. Here, we fabricated a graphene/InSe heterostructure by mechanical exfoliation and investigated the optically induced charge transfer between graphene/InSe heterostructures by taking photoluminescence and pump-probe measurements. The large built-in electric field at the interface was confirmed by Kelvin probe force microscopy. Furthermore, due to the efficient interfacial carrier transfer driven by the built-in electric potential (~286 meV) and broadband nonlinear absorption, the application of the graphene/InSe heterostructure in a mode-locked laser was realized. Our work not only provides a deeper understanding of the dipole orientation-related interface interactions on the photoexcited charge transfer of graphene/InSe heterostructures, but also enriches the saturable absorber family for ultrafast photonics application.

Two-dimensional ABC3 (A = Sc, Y; B = Al, Ga, In; C = S, Se, Te) with intrinsic electric field for photocatalytic water splitting

Hydrogen production from water photolysis is considered to be one of the main approaches to obtain clean energy in the future. Two-dimensional (2D) materials with intrinsic vertical electric field can break the band gap limitation (>1.23 eV) of photocatalysts in traditional theory, and broaden the spectrum that can be used for photocatalytic water splitting, such as infrared light. Inspired by the ferroelectric phase α-B2C3 (B = Al, Ga, In; C = S, Se, Te), we replaced one of the B atoms with IIIB elements (namely Sc and Y) of the same valency, and successfully predicted 18 kinds of ABC3 (A = Sc, Y; B = Al, Ga, In; C = S, Se, Te) monolayers with high stability. Encouragingly, 15 predicted ABC3 monolayers possess direct band gap features in contrast to that of α-B2C3, which all exhibit indirect band gap feature. Due to the large intrinsic vertical electric field, the ABC3 monolayers hold great potential for efficient photocatalytic water splitting in acidic and alkaline as well as neutral environments. The rectified solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiencies of 14 ABC3 MLs were larger than 20%. Excitingly, the STH efficiency limits of YGaTe3 and YInTe3 even reach 35.97% and 36.94% using the full solar spectrum, which breaks the conventional theoretical efficiency limit. In addition, considerable light absorption and large carrier mobility are confirmed in ABC3 MLs. These interesting findings render ABC3 monolayers a strong candidate for future photovoltaic and nanoelectronic applications.

Strain engineering the electronic properties of the type-II CdO/MoS2 van der Waals heterostructure

The structural stability, electronic properties, band edge alignment and photocatalytic water splitting characteristics of the CdO/MoS2 heterostructure have been systematically investigated by first-principles calculations. The results show that the CdO/MoS2 heterostructure is a stable indirect bandgap (1.35 eV) semiconductor with a type-II band alignment and a large built-in electric field pointing from MoS2 to CdO, which greatly hinders the recombination of photogenerated carriers. Meanwhile, the CdO/MoS2 heterostructure with large carrier mobility can withstand the large biaxial strains. The band edge positions of the CdO/MoS2 heterostructure can be modulated by biaxial strain engineering. These results provide a theoretical basis for the application of the CdO/MoS2 heterostructure in photovoltaic and other electronic devices.

Impact of CH4 addition on the electron properties and electric field dynamics in a Ar nanosecond-pulsed dielectric barrier discharge

Non-equilibrium plasmas derive their low temperature reactivity from producing and driving energetic electrons and active species under large electric fields. Therefore, the impact of reactants on the plasma properties including electron number density, electric field, and electron temperature is critical for applications such as plasma methane (CH reforming. Due to experimental complexity, electron properties and the electric field are rarely measured together in the same discharge. In this work, we combine time-resolved Thomson scattering and electric field induced second harmonic generation to probe electron temperature, electron density, and electric field strength in a 60 Torr CH4/Ar nanosecond-pulsed dielectric barrier discharge while varying the CH4 mole fraction from 0% to 8%. These measurements are compared to a 1D numerical model to benchmark its predictions and identify areas of uncertainty. Nonlinear coupling between CH4 addition, electron temperature, electron density, and the electric field was directly observed. Contrary to previous measurements in He, the electron temperature increased with CH4 mole fraction. This rise in electron temperature is identified as electron heating by residual electric fields that increased with larger CH4 mole fraction. Moreover, the electron number density has been found to decrease rapidly with the increase of methane mole fraction. Comparison of these measurements with the model yielded better agreement at higher CH4 mole fractions and with the usage of ab initio calculated Ar electron-impact cross-sections from the B-spline R-matrix database. Furthermore, the calculated plasma properties are shown to be sensitive to the residual surface charge implanted on the quartz dielectric surfaces. Without considering surface charge in the simulations, the calculated electric field profiles agreed well with the measurements, but the electron properties were underpredicted by more than a factor of three. Therefore, measurements of either the electric field or electron properties measurements alone are insufficient to fully validate modeling predictions.

A 4H-SiC semi-super-junction shielded trench MOSFET: p-pillar is grounded to optimize the electric field characteristics

A 4H-SiC trench gate metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (UMOSFET) with semi-super-junction shielded structure (SS-UMOS) is proposed and compared with conventional trench MOSFET (CT-UMOS) in this work. The advantage of the proposed structure is given by comprehensive study of the mechanism of the local semi-super-junction structure at the bottom of the trench MOSFET. In particular, the influence of the bias condition of the p-pillar at the bottom of the trench on the static and dynamic performances of the device is compared and revealed. The on-resistance of SS-UMOS with grounded (G) and ungrounded (NG) p-pillar is reduced by 52% (G) and 71% (NG) compared to CT-UMOS, respectively. Additionally, gate oxide in the GSS-UMOS is fully protected by the p-shield layer as well as semi-super-junction structure under the trench and p-base regions. Thus, a reduced electric-field of 2 MV/cm can be achieved at the corner of the p-shield layer. However, the quasi-intrinsic protective layer cannot be formed in NGSS-UMOS due to the charge storage effect in the floating p-pillar, resulting in a large electric field of 2.7 MV/cm at the gate oxide layer. Moreover, the total switching loss of GSS-UMOS is 1.95 mJ/cm2 and is reduced by 18% compared with CT-UMOS. On the contrary, the NGSS-UMOS has the slowest overall switching speed due to the weakened shielding effect of the p-pillar and the largest gate-to-drain capacitance among the three. The proposed GSS-UMOS plays an important role in high-voltage and high-frequency applications, and will provide a valuable idea for device design and circuit applications.

High Responsivity Vacuum Nano-Photodiode Using Single-Crystal CsPbBr3 Micro-Sheet.

Field electron emission vacuum photodiode is promising for converting free-space electromagnetic radiation into electronic signal within an ultrafast timescale due to the ballistic electron transport in its vacuum channel. However, the low photoelectric conversion efficiency still hinders the popularity of vacuum photodiode. Here, we report an on-chip integrated vacuum nano-photodiode constructed from a Si-tip anode and a single-crystal CsPbBr3 cathode with a nano-separation of ~30 nm. Benefiting from the nanoscale vacuum channel and the high surface work function of the CsPbBr3 (4.55 eV), the vacuum nano-photodiode exhibits a low driving voltage of 15 V with an ultra-low dark current (50 pA). The vacuum nano-photodiode demonstrates a high photo responsivity (1.75 AW-1@15 V) under the illumination of a 532-nm laser light. The estimated external quantum efficiency is up to 400%. The electrostatic field simulation indicates that the CsPbBr3 cathode can be totally depleted at an optimal thickness. The large built-in electric field in the depletion region facilitates the dissociation of photoexcited electron-hole pairs, leading to an enhanced photoelectric conversion efficiency. Moreover, the voltage drop in the vacuum channel increases due to the photoconductive effect, which is beneficial to the narrowing of the vacuum barrier for more efficient electron tunneling. This device shows great promise for the development of highly sensitive perovskite-based vacuum opto-electronics.

Electrically driven torsional distortions in twisted nematic films.

The purpose of this article is to describe the physical mechanism responsible for the appearance of both traveling and nontraveling distortions in a microsized homogeneously aligned nematic (HAN) film under the effect of a large electric field. Numerical studies have been carried out to describe both the traveling and nontraveling dynamic reorientation of the director's field in a thin, in a few tens of micrometers, the HAN film under the effect of a large electric field E (∼1.0V/μm). It is shown that in response to the electric field E applied parallel to the bounding surfaces, the torques acting on the director n[over ̂] may excite the traveling distortion wave propagating normally to both boundaries, whose resemblance to a kinklike wave increases with increasing applied electric field E. Calculations show that in the HAN film the physical mechanism that is responsible for the electric-field-induced distortion of the director field n[over ̂] in the form of traveling wave provides a much faster relaxation regime than in the case of the nontraveling mode.

β-Lactamases Evolve against Antibiotics by Acquiring Large Active-Site Electric Fields.

A compound bound covalently to an enzyme active site can act either as a substrate if the covalent linkage is readily broken up by the enzyme or as an inhibitor if the bond dissociates slowly. We tracked the reactivity of such bonds associated with the rise of the resistance to penicillin G (PenG) in protein evolution from penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) to TEM β-lactamases and with the development of avibactam (Avb) to overcome the resistance. We found that the ester linkage in PBP-PenG is resistant to hydrolysis mainly due to the small electric fields present in the protein active site. Conversely, the same linkage in the descendant TEM-PenG experiences large electric fields that stabilize the more charge-separated transition state and thus lower the free energy barrier to hydrolysis. Specifically, the electric fields were improved from -59 to -140 MV/cm in an ancient evolution dating back billions of years, contributing 5 orders of magnitude rate acceleration. This trend continues today in the nullification of newly developed antibiotic drugs. The fast linkage hydrolysis acquired from evolution is counteracted by the upgrade of PenG to Avb whose linkage escapes from the hydrolysis by returning to a low-field environment. Using the framework of electrostatic catalysis, the electric field, an observable from vibrational spectroscopy, provides a unifying physical metric to understand protein evolution and to guide the design of covalent drugs.