First Observation of Negative Capacitance in Molecular Ferroelectric Thin Films.

On the path of persisting Moore's Law, one of the biggest obstacles is the "Boltzmann tyranny", which defines the lower limit of power consumption of individual transistors. Negative capacitance in ferroelectrics could provide a solution and has garnered significant attention in the fields of nanoelectronics, materials science, and solid-state physics. Molecular ferroelectrics, as an integral part of ferroelectrics, have developed rapidly in terms of both performance and functionality, with their inherent advantages such as easy fabrication, mechanical flexibility, low processing temperature, and structural tunability. However, studies on the negative capacitance in molecular ferroelectrics are limited. In this study, we focused on the fabricated high-quality thin films of trimethylchloromethyl ammonium trichlorocadmium(II) and conducted a pioneering investigation on their negative capacitance responses. Our findings demonstrate that the negative capacitance exhibited by molecular ferroelectrics is comparable to that of conventional HfO 2 -based ferroelectrics. This underscores the potential of molecular material systems for next-generation electronic devices. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.