Ferroelectricity in glycine picrate: An astonishing observation in a centrosymmetric crystal

Abstract

Remarkable ferroelectric property has been observed in the glycine picrate single crystal though it crystallizes in centrosymmetric structure. An anomaly at 105 °C was observed in dielectric and ac conductivity measurements. The activation energies for conduction (Ea) below and above this temperature are found to be 0.31 and 0.53 eV, respectively. The remanant polarization (Pr) and coercive field (Ec) at room temperature were found to be 0.64 μC/cm2 and 6.22 kV/cm, respectively. However, a remarkable increase in these values was observed above 105 °C. A significantly high d33 (piezoelectric charge coefficient) in the order of 18 pC/N was observed.