Molecular ferroelectrics are attracting much attention as valuable complements to conventional ceramic ferroelectrics owing to their solution processability and nontoxicity. Encouragingly, the recent discovery of a multiaxial molecular ferroelectric, tetraethylammonium perchlorate, is expected to be able to solve the problem that in the technologically relevant thin-film form uniaxial molecular ferroelectrics have been found to perform considerably more poorly than in bulk. However, it can show good polarization-electric field (P-E) hysteresis loops only at very low frequency, severely hampering practical applications such as ferroelectric random access memory. Here, we present a biaxial molecular ferroelectric thin film of [Hdabco]ClO (dabco = 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane) (1), where a perfect ferroelectric hysteresis loop can be observed even at 10 kHz. It is the first example of a molecular ferroelectric thin film whose polarization can be switched at such a high frequency. Moreover, using piezoresponse force microscopy, we clearly observed the coexistence of 180° and non-180° ferroelectric domains and provided direct experimental proof that 180° ferroelectric switching and non-180° ferroelastic switching are both realized; that is, a flexible alteration of the polarization axis direction can occur in the thin film by applying an electric field. These results open a new avenue for applications of molecular ferroelectrics and will inspire further exploration of high-performance multiaxial molecular ferroelectric thin films.

Molecular ferroelectrics are currently an active research topic in the field of ferroelectric materials. As complements or alternatives of conventional inorganic ferroelectrics, they have been designed to realize various novel properties, ranging from multiferroicity and semiconductive ferroelectricity to ferroelectric photovoltaics and ferroelectric luminescence. The stabilizing of ferroelectricity in various systems is owing to the flexible tailorability of the organic components. Here we describe the construction of optically active molecular ferroelectrics by introducing homochiral molecules as polar groups. We find that the ferroelectricity in (R)-(−)-3-hydroxlyquinuclidinium halides is due to the alignment of the homochiral molecules. We observe that both the specific optical rotation and rotatory direction change upon paraelectric-ferroelectric phase transitions, due to the existence of two origins from the molecular chirality and spatial arrangement, whose contributions vary upon the transitions. The optical rotation switching effect may find applications in electro-optical elements.

Recently, a plastic crystal of quinuclidinium perrhenate (HQReO_{4}) was reported to have the feasibility of controlling the crystallographic orientation in the grown crystal, but the corresponding temperature window is only about 22 K (345-367 K). Such a narrow window and uncertain ferroelectricity at room temperature would extremely limit its application potential. In this report, we prepared a large area high-quality polycrystalline thin film of HQReO_{4} and for the first time observed ferroelectricity in the temperature range from 298 to 367 K. Density functional theory calculations revealed the origin of room-temperature ferroelectricity is ascribed to the collaborative flipping of HQ (protonated quinuclidine) and ReO_{4}^{-}, which is dynamically preferred in the presence of a N─H⋯O hydrogen bond. A local piezoresponse force microscopy measurement was also employed to study the mechanisms of multiaxial polarization rotation and domain dynamics. By extending the ferroelectric temperature window to room temperature and the extraordinary thin-film processability, HQReO_{4} would certainly become a suitable candidate for next generation ferroelectric materials.

Shape memory alloys have been used extensively in actuators, couplings, medical guide wires, and smart devices, because of their unique shape memory effect and superelasticity triggered by the reversible martensitic phase transformations. For ferroic materials, however, almost no memory effects have been found for their ferroic domains after reversible phase transformations. Here, we present a pair of single-component organic enantiomorphic ferroelectric/ferroelastic crystals, (R)- and (S)-N-3,5-di-tert-butylsalicylidene-1-(1-naphthyl)ethylamine SA-NPh-(R) and SA-NPh-(S). It is notable that not only can their ferroic domain patterns disappear and reappear during reversible thermodynamic phase transformations, but they can also disappear and reappear during reversible light-driven phase transformations induced by enol–keto photoisomerization, both of which are from P1 to P21 polar space groups. Most importantly, the domain patterns are exactly the same in the initial and final states, demonstrating the existence of a memory effect for the ferroic domains in SA-NPh-(R) and SA-NPh-(S). As far as we are aware, the domain memory effect triggered by both thermodynamic and light-driven ferroelectric/ferroelastic phase transformations remains unexplored in ferroic materials. Thermal and optical control of domain memory effect would open up a fresh research field for smart ferroic materials.

Ferroelectricity, existing in either solid crystals or liquid crystals, gained widespread attention from science and industry for over a century. However, ferroelectricity has never been observed in both solid and liquid crystal phases of a material simultaneously. Inorganic ferroelectrics that dominate the market do not have liquid crystal phases because of their completely rigid structure caused by intrinsic chemical bonds. We report a ferroelectric homochiral cholesterol derivative, β-sitosteryl 4-iodocinnamate, where both solid and liquid crystal phases can exhibit the behavior of polarization switching as determined by polarization–voltage hysteresis loops and piezoresponse force microscopy measurements. The unique long molecular chain, sterol structure, and homochirality of β-sitosteryl 4-iodocinnamate molecules enable the formation of polar crystal structures with point group 2 in solid crystal phases, and promote the layered and helical structure in the liquid crystal phase with vertical polarization. Our findings demonstrate a compound that can show the biferroelectricity in both solid and liquid crystal phases, which would inspire further exploration of the interplay between solid and liquid crystal ferroelectric phases.