A lead-halide perovskite molecular ferroelectric semiconductor

TLDR

Inorganic semiconductor ferroelectrics such as BiFeO₃ have shown promise for photovoltaic and other applications, and hybrid organo‑plumbate or stannate materials are increasingly studied for their semiconducting properties and potential ferroelectricity. The study aims to design molecular ferroelectric semiconductors based on these hybrids to obtain new or high‑performance semiconductor ferroelectrics. We investigated Pb‑layered perovskites and found that the benzylammonium 2‑PbCl₄ perovskite is ferroelectric with semiconducting behavior. The material exhibits a spontaneous polarization of 13 µC cm⁻², a Curie temperature of 438 K, and a band gap of 3.65 eV, highlighting new properties of hybrid organo‑plumbate or stannate compounds and offering a pathway to develop novel semiconductor ferroelectrics.

Abstract

Abstract Inorganic semiconductor ferroelectrics such as BiFeO 3 have shown great potential in photovoltaic and other applications. Currently, semiconducting properties and the corresponding application in optoelectronic devices of hybrid organo-plumbate or stannate are a hot topic of academic research; more and more of such hybrids have been synthesized. Structurally, these hybrids are suitable for exploration of ferroelectricity. Therefore, the design of molecular ferroelectric semiconductors based on these hybrids provides a possibility to obtain new or high-performance semiconductor ferroelectrics. Here we investigated Pb-layered perovskites, and found the layer perovskite (benzylammonium) 2 PbCl 4 is ferroelectric with semiconducting behaviours. It has a larger ferroelectric spontaneous polarization P s =13 μC cm −2 and a higher Curie temperature T c =438 K with a band gap of 3.65 eV. This finding throws light on the new properties of the hybrid organo-plumbate or stannate compounds and provides a new way to develop new semiconductor ferroelectrics.