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:

Zhang, Zhuolei ^[1]; Li, Peng-Fei ^[2]; Tang, Yuan-Yuan ^[2]; Wilson, Andrew J.  ^[3];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-3427-810X"
• Search orcid.org for ORCID "0000-0003-3427-810X"

Willets, Katherine ^[3]; Wuttig, Manfred ^[4]; Xiong, Ren-Gen  ^[2];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Xiong, Ren-Gen"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-2364-0193"
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Ren, Shenqiang ^[1]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

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:

2017-08-30

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