Self-Assembly of Organic Ferroelectrics by Evaporative Dewetting: A Case of β-Glycine

Ensieh Seyedhosseini, Konstantin Romanyuk, Daria Vasileva, Semen Vasilev, Alla Nuraeva, Pavel Zelenovskiy, Maxim Ivanov, Anna N. Morozovska, Vladimir Ya Shur, Haidong Lu, Alexei Gruverman, Andrei L. Kholkin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Self-assembly of ferroelectric materials attracts significant interest because it offers a promising fabrication route to novel structures useful for microelectronic devices such as nonvolatile memories, integrated sensors/actuators, or energy harvesters. In this work, we demonstrate a novel approach for self-assembly of organic ferroelectrics (as exemplified by ferroelectric β-glycine) using evaporative dewetting, which allows forming quasi-regular arrays of nano- and microislands with preferred orientation of polarization axes. Surprisingly, self-assembled islands are crystallographically oriented in a radial direction from the center of organic "grains" formed during dewetting process. The kinetics of dewetting process follows the t-1/2 law, which is responsible for the observed polygon shape of the grain boundaries and island coverage as a function of radial position. The polarization in ferroelectric islands of β-glycine is parallel to the substrate and switchable under a relatively small dc voltage applied by the conducting tip of piezoresponse force microscope. Significant size effect on polarization is observed and explained within the Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire phenomenological formalism.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)20029-20037
Number of pages9
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume9
Issue number23
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Jun 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • dewetting
  • glycine
  • organic ferroelectrics
  • self-assembly
  • size effect

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