A family of ionic supersalts with covalent-like directionality and unconventional multiferroicity

Yaxin Gao, Menghao Wu () and Puru Jena
Additional contact information
Yaxin Gao: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Menghao Wu: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Puru Jena: Virginia Commonwealth University

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Ionic crystals composed of elemental ions such as NaCl are non-polar due to directionless ionic bonding interactions. Here, we show that these can develop polarity by changing their building blocks from elemental ions to superalkali and superhalogen cluster-ions, which mimic the chemistry of alkali and halogen atoms, respectively. Due to the non-spherical geometries of these cluster ions, corresponding supersalts form anisotropic polar structures with ionic bonding, yet covalent-like directionality, akin to sp3 hybridized systems. Using density functional theory and extensive structure searches, we predict a series of stable ferroelectric/ferroelastic supersalts, PnH4MX4 (Pn = N, P; M = B, Al, Fe; X = Cl, Br) composed of superalkali PnH4 and superhalogen MX4 ions. Unlike traditional ferroelectric/ferroelastic materials, the cluster-ion based supersalts possess ultra-low switching barrier and can endure large ion displacements and reversible strain. In particular, PH4FeBr4 exhibits triferroic coupling of ferroelectricity, ferroelasticity, and antiferromagnetism with controllable spin directions via either ferroelastic or 90-degree ferroelectric switching.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21597-3 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-21597-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21597-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().