An image of the novel crystalline material that possesses both ferroelectricity and chirality. Image: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.If new and promising semiconductor materials are to make it into phones, computers and other increasingly capable electronics, researchers must obtain greater control over how those materials function. Now, in a paper in Science Advances, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute report how they designed and synthesized a unique material with controllable capabilities that make it very promising for future electronics.
The researchers synthesized the material – an organic-inorganic hybrid crystal made up of carbon, iodine and lead – and then demonstrated that it possessed two material properties previously unseen in a single material. One was a spontaneous electric polarization that could be reversed when exposed to an electric field, a property known as ferroelectricity. The other was a type of asymmetry known as chirality – in which two distinct objects are mirror images of one another but can’t be superimposed, like right and left hands.
According to Jian Shi, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Rensselaer, this unique combination of ferroelectricity and chirality is advantageous. When combined with the material's conductivity, these two characteristics can induce other electrical, magnetic or optical properties.
"What we have done here is equip a ferroelectric material with extra functionality, allowing it to be manipulated in previously impossible ways," Shi said.
The experimental discovery of this material was inspired by theoretical predictions by Ravishankar Sundararaman, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Rensselaer. A ferroelectric material with chirality, Sundararaman predicted, can be manipulated to respond differently to left- and right-handed light so that it produces specific electric and magnetic properties. This type of light-matter interaction is particularly promising for future communication and computing technologies.
This story is adapted from material from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier. Link to original source.