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While at CSUSB, I worked for the winter quarter with Dr. John Zhang and his student Francisco Guzman in improving the fabrication of organic ferroelectric thin films.
While at CSUSB, I worked for the winter quarter with Dr. John Zhang and his student Francisco Guzman in improving the fabrication of organic ferroelectric thin films.
Croconic acid is an organic molecule with a strong dipole, and more importantly, is an room temperature ferroelectric. Naturally, many people are interested in growing thin films from it, so you have a thin film that is flexible, environmentally friendly, and ferroelectric.
Croconic acid is an organic molecule with a strong dipole, and more importantly, is an room temperature ferroelectric. Naturally, many people are interested in growing thin films from it, so you have a thin film that is flexible, environmentally friendly, and ferroelectric.
Unfortunately, if you simply try to deposit Croconic Acid on a substrate, it won't make a nice, uniform thin film, but instead will create a rough, non uniform, and frankly useless film.
Unfortunately, if you simply try to deposit Croconic Acid on a substrate, it won't make a nice, uniform thin film, but instead will create a rough, non uniform, and frankly useless film.
Our solution to this problem was to try to add a mesh in front of the substrate. We would then apply a high voltage to this mesh, which would then generate a strong electric field in the space between the mesh and the target substrate.
Our solution to this problem was to try to add a mesh in front of the substrate. We would then apply a high voltage to this mesh, which would then generate a strong electric field in the space between the mesh and the target substrate.
Since Croconic acid has such a strong dipole for it's small size, the electric field generated by the potential difference between the mesh and the substrate should should interact with the molecule's dipole, orienting it and changing the type of thin films it forms.
Since Croconic acid has such a strong dipole for it's small size, the electric field generated by the potential difference between the mesh and the substrate should should interact with the molecule's dipole, orienting it and changing the type of thin films it forms.
This method was successful in that it not only produced films that were significantly smoother, but the films were also shown to have a piezoelectric response, and displayed some memory, as we were able to "write" patterns in the thin films using applied voltages and then subsequently read them using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). For more details, check out our paper.
This method was successful in that it not only produced films that were significantly smoother, but the films were also shown to have a piezoelectric response, and displayed some memory, as we were able to "write" patterns in the thin films using applied voltages and then subsequently read them using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). For more details, check out our paper.
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