Investigation of Local Piezo- and Ferroelectric Properties in a Single-Ion Zn/Dy Molecular Complex

Abstract

In this work, the piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties in the Zn/Dy single-ion molecular complex have been studied by local piezoresponse force microscopy and switching spectroscopy. It is demonstrated that the chosen strategy for the synthesis of integrated magnetoelectric molecular systems makes it possible to grow molecular single crystals in the polar group. Switching of the intrinsic domain structure in Zn/Dy single crystal at a bias voltage of +15 V and the possibility of changing the induced domain structure at a bias voltage of -20 V were demonstrated. The effective piezoelectric coefficient d33 was attained of about 14 pm/V at a bias voltage of 50 V. Keywords: Integrated magnetoelectric molecular systems, magnetoelectric interaction, single-ion molecular chiral complex, piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM).