title: A lead-halide perovskite molecular ferroelectric semiconductor.
abstract: Inorganic semiconductor ferroelectrics such as BiFeO3 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)2PbCl4 is ferroelectric with semiconducting behaviours. It has a larger ferroelectric spontaneous polarization Ps=13 μC cm(-2) and a higher Curie temperature Tc=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.
authors.affiliation: Ordered Matter Science Research Center, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
authors.forename: Wei-Qiang
authors.initials: WQ
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Ordered Matter Science Research Center, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.
authors.forename: Chun-Li
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.
authors.forename: Jiang-Gao
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: Ordered Matter Science Research Center, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
authors.forename: Heng-Yun
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Ordered Matter Science Research Center, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
authors.forename: Peng-Fei
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44240, USA.
authors.forename: Songping D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: 1] Ordered Matter Science Research Center, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China [2] Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44240, USA.
authors.forename: Ren-Gen
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Xiong