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Title: Tunable electroresistance and electro-optic effects of transparent molecular ferroelectrics

Abstract

Recent progress in molecular ferroelectrics (MOFEs) has been overshadowed by the lack of high-quality thin films for device integration. We report a water-based air-processable technique to prepare large-area MOFE thin films, controlled by supersaturation growth at the liquid-air interface under a temperature gradient and external water partial pressure. We used this technique to fabricate ImClO4 thin films and found a large, tunable room temperature electroresistance: a 20-fold resistance variation upon polarization switching. The as-grown films are transparent and consist of a bamboo-like structure of ($$2,\overline{1},0$$) and ($$1,0,\overline{2}$$) structural variants of R3m symmetry with a reversible polarization of 6.7 μC/cm2. The resulting ferroelectric domain structure leads to a reversible electromechanical response of d33 = 38.8 pm/V. Polarization switching results in a change of the refractive index, n, of single domains, $$\frac{Δn}{n}$$ = 0.3. The remarkable combination of these characteristics renders MOFEs a prime candidate material for new nanoelectronic devices. The information that we present in this work will open a new area of MOFE thin-film technologies.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1]
  1. Temple University, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Department of Mechanical Engineering and Temple Materials Institute
  2. Southeast University, Nanjing (China)
  3. Temple University, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Department of Chemistry
  4. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States). Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Temple Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
OSTI Identifier:
1429329
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0017928; SC0010307
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Science Advances
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 3; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 2375-2548
Publisher:
AAAS
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Citation Formats

Zhang, Zhuolei, Li, Peng-Fei, Tang, Yuan-Yuan, Wilson, Andrew J., Willets, Katherine, Wuttig, Manfred, Xiong, Ren-Gen, and Ren, Shenqiang. Tunable electroresistance and electro-optic effects of transparent molecular ferroelectrics. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1701008.
Zhang, Zhuolei, Li, Peng-Fei, Tang, Yuan-Yuan, Wilson, Andrew J., Willets, Katherine, Wuttig, Manfred, Xiong, Ren-Gen, & Ren, Shenqiang. Tunable electroresistance and electro-optic effects of transparent molecular ferroelectrics. United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1701008
Zhang, Zhuolei, Li, Peng-Fei, Tang, Yuan-Yuan, Wilson, Andrew J., Willets, Katherine, Wuttig, Manfred, Xiong, Ren-Gen, and Ren, Shenqiang. Wed . "Tunable electroresistance and electro-optic effects of transparent molecular ferroelectrics". United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1701008. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1429329.
@article{osti_1429329,
title = {Tunable electroresistance and electro-optic effects of transparent molecular ferroelectrics},
author = {Zhang, Zhuolei and Li, Peng-Fei and Tang, Yuan-Yuan and Wilson, Andrew J. and Willets, Katherine and Wuttig, Manfred and Xiong, Ren-Gen and Ren, Shenqiang},
abstractNote = {Recent progress in molecular ferroelectrics (MOFEs) has been overshadowed by the lack of high-quality thin films for device integration. We report a water-based air-processable technique to prepare large-area MOFE thin films, controlled by supersaturation growth at the liquid-air interface under a temperature gradient and external water partial pressure. We used this technique to fabricate ImClO4 thin films and found a large, tunable room temperature electroresistance: a 20-fold resistance variation upon polarization switching. The as-grown films are transparent and consist of a bamboo-like structure of ($2,\overline{1},0$) and ($1,0,\overline{2}$) structural variants of R3m symmetry with a reversible polarization of 6.7 μC/cm2. The resulting ferroelectric domain structure leads to a reversible electromechanical response of d33 = 38.8 pm/V. Polarization switching results in a change of the refractive index, n, of single domains, $\frac{Δn}{n}$ = 0.3. The remarkable combination of these characteristics renders MOFEs a prime candidate material for new nanoelectronic devices. The information that we present in this work will open a new area of MOFE thin-film technologies.},
doi = {10.1126/sciadv.1701008},
journal = {Science Advances},
number = 8,
volume = 3,
place = {United States},
year = {2017},
month = {8}
}

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