Persistent opto-ferroelectric responses in molecular ferroelectrics

Authors

Xuanyuan Jiang, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Xiao Wang, Bryn Mawr College
Pratyush Buragohain, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Andy T. Clark, Bryn Mawr College
Haidong Lu, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Shashi Poddar, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Le Yu, Nanjing University, China
Anthony D. DiChiara, Argonne National Laboratory
Alexei Gruverman, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Xuemei Cheng, Bryn Mawr CollegeFollow
Xiaoshan Xu, Bryn Mawr College

Document Type

Article

Version

Final Published Version

Publication Title

Phys. Rev. Materials

Volume

6

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

Persistent photoresponses require optical excitations to metastable states, which are rare of ionic origin due to the indirect photon-ion interaction. In this work, we explore the photoinduced metastable proton states in the proton-transfer type molecular ferroelectric croconic acid. We observe that, after the photoexcitation, the changes of structural and ferroelectric properties relax in ∼10^3s, indicating persistent photoresponses of ionic origin. In contrast, the photoconductivity relaxes within 1 s. The 10^3s timescale suggests that the ionic metastable states result from proton transfer both along and out of the hydrogen bonds. This discovery unveils an ionic mechanism for the phototunability, which offers persistent opto-ferroelectric control for proton-transfer type molecular ferroelectrics.

Citation

Jiang, X., Wang, X., Buragohain, P., Clark, A. T., Lu, H., Poddar, S., Yu, L., DiChiara, A. D., Gruverman, A., Cheng, X. and X. Xu. 2022. "Persistent opto-ferroelectric responses in molecular ferroelectrics." Phys. Rev. Materials 6: 074412.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.6.074412