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Molecular Ferroelectrics
Stephen Ducharme
Department of Physics and Astronomy,
Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience,
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0299
e-mail: [email protected]
There has been renewed interest in molecular ferroelectrics,1 stimulated by emerging opportunities in
organic electronics for compatible ferroelectric materials with large room-temperature polarization,
piezoelectric response, and pyroelectric response. Until recently, most of the attention has been placed on
ferroelectric polymers based on polyvinylidene fluoride, which have shown promise for use in, for
example, low-power nonvolatile electronics,2 solar cells,3 and transducers.4 Several promising molecular
ferroelectrics with high room-temperature polarization have emerged that have room-temperature
polarization comparable to barium titanate and stable ferroelectricity well above room temperature, and yet
each has a unique mechanism of ferroelectricity. One system exhibits robust 2D hydrogen bond ordering,5
in contrast to more familiar 3D ordering found in triglycine sulfate, for example. The 2D ordering feature
lends it self to the formation of self-assembled bond-ordered structures and is therefore promising for thin
film and nanoscale applications.6 A second system is a charge-transfer ferroelectric, in which we expect
close coupling between ferroelectric and electronic properties.7, 8 A third system, organics salts like
diisopropylammonium bromide,9 operates by molecular inversion of the anion and therefore are an
intriguing platform for the investigation of the connection between molecular structure and ferroelectric
properties.10 All three systems offer considerable synthetic flexibility, promising rich physics along with
the opportunity for adaptation to a wide range of technologies.
1. “Organic ferroelectrics,” S. Horiuchi and Y. Tokura, Nat Mater 7 (5), 357-366 (2008).
2. Nanoscale Design of Multifunctional Organic Layers for Low-Power High-Density Memory Devices,”
L. Nougaret, H. G. Kassa, A. M. Jonas, et al.” ACS Nano 8, 3498-3505 (2014).
3. “Efficiency enhancement in organic solar cells with ferroelectric polymers,” Y. Yuan, T. J. Reece, J.
Huang, et al., Nat Mater 10, 296-302 (2011).
4. “Ferroelectric control of magnetic anisotropy,” A. Mardana, S. Ducharme, S. Adenwalla, Nano Lett 11
(9), 3862-3867 (2011).
5. “Above-room-temperature ferroelectricity in a single-component molecular crystal,” S. Horiuchi, Y.
Tokunaga, Y. Tokura, et al., Nature 463 (7282), 789-792 (2010).
6. “Proton transfer in surface-stabilized chiral motifs of croconic acid,” D. A. Kunkel, J. Hooper, A.
Enders, et al., Phys Rev B 87 (4), 041402(R) (2013).
7. “Room-temperature ferroelectricity in supramolecular networks of charge-transfer complexes,” A. S.
Tayi, A. K. Shveyd, S. I. Stupp, et al., Nature 488 (7412), 485-489 (2012).
8. “Design of Ferroelectric Organic Molecular Crystals with Ultrahigh Polarization,” S. Chen and X. C.
Zeng, J Am Chem Soc 136 (17), 6428-6436 (2014).
9. “Diisopropylammonium Bromide Is a High-Temperature Molecular Ferroelectric Crystal,” D. W. Fu,
H. L. Cai, R. G. Xiong, et al., Science 339 (6118), 425-428 (2013).
10. “Effect of Anion Substitution on Ferroelectric Properties of Flexure Ferroelectrics,” S. Poddar, O. Goit,
S. Ducharme, et al., unpublished.
Stephen Ducharme
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL)
208 Jorgensen Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0299
Phone: (402) 472-8590 / E-mail: [email protected]
Professional Preparation
University of Lowell, Massachussetts
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
University of Utah, Salt Lake City
Physics
Physics
Physics
Physics
B.S
M.A.
Ph.D.
Post-doc
1981
1982
1986
1986-88
Appointments
2001 – present
2001 – 2013
1991 – 1996
1996 – 2001
1988 – 1990
Professor: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL);
Vice Chair: Department of Physics and Astronomy, UNL
Assistant Professor: Department of Physics and Astronomy, UNL
Associate Professor: Department of Physics and Astronomy, UNL
Visiting Scientist: IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, California
Products (from over 170 refereed publications);
Five Products Closely Related to the Project
1. “Enhancement of local piezoresponse in polymer ferroelectrics via nanoscale control of
microstructure,” Yoon-Young Choi, Pankaj Sharma, Charudatta Phatak, David J. Gosztola, Yunya
Liu, Joonseok Lee, Jiangyu Li, Alexei Gruverman, Stephen Ducharme, and Seungbum Hong, ACS
Nano 9 (2), 11 pages (2015). http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nn5067232
2. “Polarization Imaging in Ferroelectric Polymer Thin Films by Pyroelectric Scanning Microscopy,”
Jingfeng Song, Haidong Lu, Alexei Gruverman, and S. Ducharme, Applied Physics Letters 104,
192901 (2014). http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4875960
3. “Coplanar Switching of Polarization in Thin Films of Vinylidene Fluoride Oligomers,” Pankaj Sharma,
Alexandra Fursina, Shashi Poddar, Stephen Ducharme, and Alexei Gruverman, Applied Physics
Letters 105, 182903 (4) (2014). http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4901257
4. “Rhodizonic Acid on Noble Metals: Surface Reactivity and Coordination Chemistry,” Donna A. Kunkel,
J. Hooper, S. Simpson, S. Beniwal, K. L. Morrow, D. C. Smith, K. Cousins, S. Ducharme, Eva Zurek,
Axel Enders, J. Physical Chemistry Letters 4, 3413-3419 (2013). http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jz4016124
5. “Proton transfer in surface-stabilized chiral motifs of croconic acid,” Donna A. Kunkel, James Hooper,
Scott Simpson, Geoffrey A. Rojas, Stephen Ducharme, Timothy Usher, Eva Zurek, Axel Enders,
Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Communications) 87, 041402 (2013).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/Physrevb.87.041402
Five Other Significant Products
1. Ferroelectricity at the Nanoscale, Vladimir Fridkin and S. Ducharme (Springer, Berlin, 2014) 132
pages. ISBN 978-3-642-41007-9. http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-642-41007-9
2. “Coplanar Switching of Polarization in Thin Films of Vinylidene Fluoride Oligomers,” Pankaj Sharma,
Alexandra Fursina, Shashi Poddar, Stephen Ducharme, and Alexei Gruverman, Applied Physics
Letters 105, 182903 (4) (2014). http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4901257
3. “Measurement of the flexoelectric response in ferroelectric and relaxor polymer thin films,” Shashi
Poddar, Stephen Ducharme, Applied Physics Letters 103, 202901 (2013).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4829622
4. “Efficiency enhancement in organic solar cells with ferroelectric polymers,” Yongbo Yuan, Timothy J.
Reece, Stephen Ducharme, Pankaj Sharma, Alexei Gruverman, Y. Yang, Jinsong Huang, Nature
Materials 11, 296-302 (2011). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat2951
5. “High-Resolution Studies of Domain Switching Behavior in Nanostructured Ferroelectric Polymers,”
Pankaj Sharma, Timothy J. Reece, S. Ducharme, Alexei Gruverman, Nano Letters 11, 1970-75
(2011). http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl200221z
Synergistic Activities
1. General Co-Chair: SPIE Conference on Organic Photorefractive Materials and Xerographic
Photoreceptors (1995-1999)
2. Topic Co-Chair: International Symposium on Integrated Ferroelectrics (2009 - 2010)
3. Chair: Departmental CMMP Theory and Experimental Faculty searches (2012 - 2013)
4. UNL Speakers Bureau: Community Outreach and Education (2009 - present)
5. Reviewer: US, private and non-US science funding agencies; numerous scientific journals covering
physics, applied physics, optics and materials science (ongoing)
Collaborators and Other Affiliations (current institution)
Collaborators & Co-Editors (65 total): Shireen Adenwalla (UNL); Mengjun Bai (U Missouri-Columbia);
Balamurugan Balasubramanian (UNL); Andrew Baruth (Creighton U, Omaha); Barry Chin Li Cheung
(UNL); Yoonyoung Choi (Argonne Natl. Lab.); Kimberly Cousins (Cal. State U San Bernardino); Axel
Enders (UNL); Michael Fitsilis (IFF Jülich, Germany); Vladimir Michailovich Fridkin (Inst. of
Crystallography, Russian Acad. Sciences, Moscow); Radmir V. Gaynutdinov (Inst. of Crystallography;
Russian Acad. Sciences, Moscow); Zhongxin X. Ge (Albemarle Corp., Baton Rouge, LA); Andreas
Gerber (IFF Jülich, Germany); David J. Gosztola (Argonne Natl. Lab.); Alexei Gruverman (UNL); Jennifer
Hamblen (UNL); Seungbum Hong (Argonne Natl. Lab.); Xia Hong (UNL); James Hooper (Jagiellonian U,
Poland); Jinsong Huang (UNL); Jeremy T. Johnston (U South Carolina); Sergei V. Kalinin (Oak Ridge
National Lab); Hermann Kohlstedt (U Kiel, Germany); Rafal Korlacki (UNL); Donna A. Kunkel (Dow
Chemical, Houston); Joonseok Lee (Argonne Natl. Lab.); Levin Lee (UNL); Jiangyu Li (U Washington);
Yunya Liu (Argonne Natl. Lab.); Yongfeng Lu (UNL); O. A. Lysova (Inst. of Crystallography, Russian
Acad. Sciences, Moscow); Abhijit Mardana (Intel Corp., Hillsboro, Oregon); S. Mitko (NT-MDT Co.,
Moscow); T. Jack Morris (UNL); Serge M. Nakhmanson (U Connecticut); Christina M. Othon (Wesleyan
U, CT); Patrycja Paruch (U Geneva, Switzerland); C. Phatak (Argonne Natl. Lab.); Matthew Poulsen
(Suiter-Swantz, PC, LLO, Omaha, NE); Nicolas A. Reding (UNL); Timothy J. Reece (U NebraskaKearney); E. Rije (ISG1 Jülich, Germany); Geoffrey A. Rojas (ORNL); Ravi Saraf (UNL); David J.
Sellmyer (UNL); Pankaj Sharma (U New South Wales, Australia); Scott Simpson (SUNY Buffalo);
Alexander Sinitskii (UNL); Ralph Skomski (UNL); Douglas Smith (Cal. State U San Bernardino); Marilyne
Stains (UNL); James M. Takacs (UNL); A. L. Tolstikhina (Inst. of Crystallography, Russian Acad.
Sciences, Moscow); Timothy Usher (Cal. State U San Bernardino); Shah R. Valloppilly (UNL); Rainer
Waser (IFF Jülich, Germany); Dong Wu (North Carolina State U); Zhengguo Xiao (UNL); Bin Yang (UNL);
Yang Yang (University of California-Los Angeles); Yongbo Yang (UNL); Yingbo Yuan (UNL); S. G. Yudin
(Inst. of Crystallography, Russian Acad. Sciences, Moscow); Qiming Zhang (Penn State U); Eva Zurek (U
Buffalo)
Graduate and Post-Doctoral Advisors (3 total)
M.A. & Ph.D. Advisor: Jack Feinberg (U Southern California)
Postdoctoral Sponsors: P. Craig Taylor (retired); and William Esco Moerner (Stanford U)
Graduate Thesis Supervisor and Postgraduate-Scholar Sponsor (current institution)
Graduate Advisees (15 total): Mengjun Bai (U Missouri-Columbia); Om Goit (current); Arosha
Goonesekera (Carl Zeiss SMT, Pleasanton, CA); Brian Jones (Bruker AXS, Madison, WI); Jihee Kim
(Monastère de l'Annonciation, KyeongBuk, South Korea); Kristin Kraemer (Kansas Wesleyan University);
Martin Liphardt (J.A. Woolam Co., Lincoln, NE); Christina M. Othon (Wesleyan U, CT); Shashi Poddar
(UNL); Matthew Poulsen (Suiter-Swantz, PC, LLO, Omaha, NE); Timothy Reece (U Nebraska-Kearney);
Jingfeng Song (current); Bau Vu (unknown); Chuanxing Zhu (Optiworks, Fremont, CA);
Postdoctoral Advisees (9 total): Rafal Korlacki (UNL Electrical Engineering); Shashi Poddar (UNL);
Timothy J. Reece (U Nebraska-Kearney); Alexander Sorokin (Ivanovo State U, Russia); Genady Vizdrik
(Inst. of Crystallography, Russian Acad. Sciences, Moscow);