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Organic ferroelectrics

Nature Materials volume 7, pages 357–366 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Ferroelectricity results from one of the most representative phase transitions in solids, and is widely used for technical applications. However, observations of ferroelectricity in organic solids have until recently been limited to well-known polymer ferroelectrics and only a few low-molecular-mass compounds. Whereas the traditional use of dipolar molecules has hardly succeeded in producing ferroelectricity in general, here we review advances in the synthesis of new organic materials with promising ferroelectric properties near room temperature, using design principles in analogy to inorganic compounds. These materials are based on non-covalent molecules formed by two or more components, in which ferroelectricity arises either from molecular displacements or from the collective transfer of electrons or protons. The principle of using multi-component molecular compounds leads to a much broader design flexibility and may therefore facilitate the development of future functional organics.

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Figure 1: Conventional designs of ferroelectric materials and the origin of their dipole moment p or polarization P (open arrows).
Figure 2: Neutral–ionic phase transitions for TTF-CA and TTF-QBrCl3 crystals.
Figure 3: Deprotonation/protonation processes and acidic dissociation constants of acid/base molecules.
Figure 4: Crystal structure of Phz-H2xa cocrystals.
Figure 5: Temperature variation of dielectric properties of Phz-H2xa cocrystals.
Figure 6: Structure of [H-55dmbp][Hia] cocrystal in the ferroelectric phase.
Figure 7: Dielectric properties of the [H-55dmbp][Hia] cocrystal.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Kumai, Y. Tokunaga, F. Ishii, N. Nagaosa, Y. Okimoto, T. Hasegawa, T. Arima and Y. Noda for discussions and collaborations in experiments. S.H. is grateful for support by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (no. 18750133) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Correlated Electron Research Center (CERC), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, 305-8562, Japan

    Sachio Horiuchi & Yoshinori Tokura

  2. ERATO Multiferroic Project, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), c/o AIST, Tsukuba, 305-8562, Japan

    Yoshinori Tokura

  3. Department of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo, Hongo, 113-8656, Tokyo, Japan

    Yoshinori Tokura

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Horiuchi, S., Tokura, Y. Organic ferroelectrics. Nature Mater 7, 357–366 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2137

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