Formation of noncentrosymmetric
three-dimensional (3D) lead halide
perovskites has been a widely sought after goal because the polar
structure opens up new vistas to properties of these materials, e.g.,
improved charge separation for photovoltaics arising from ferroelectric
order. Here, we report growth and unique properties of a new highly
distorted 3D perovskite, methylhydrazinium lead chloride (CH3NH2NH2PbCl3, MHyPbCl
3
). This perovskite crystallizes in polar P21 structure at room temperature, which consists
of two types of PbCl6 octahedra: one weakly and another
strongly deformed. The unusual deformation of every second perovskite
layer is forced by the large size of methylhydrazinium cations and
the ability of NH2
+ terminal groups of methylhydrazinium
cations to form coordination bonds with Pb2+ metal centers.
On heating, MHyPbCl
3
undergoes
a phase transition at 342 K into another polar Pb21
m phase with ordered organic cations.
Temperature-resolved second-harmonic generation (TR-SHG) measurements
confirm acentricity of both phases and show that second-harmonic response
is enhanced for the high-temperature Pb21
m phase. This intriguing property of MHyPbCl
3
has been employed to demonstrate an unprecedented
kind of quadratic nonlinear optical switching in which a second-harmonic
response is switched between a room-temperature, low-SHG state and
a high-temperature, high-SHG state. X-ray diffraction shows that enhancement
of polar properties is due to rearrangement of the perovskite’s
organic substructure. There is a clear pyrocurrent peak, but switching
of the electric polarization could not be observed. Optical studies
showed that MHyPbCl
3
is a wide-bandgap
material with a bandgap of 3.4 eV (365 nm). At low temperatures, it
exhibits weak UV emissions at 362 and 369 nm as well as a strong broadband
white emission.
We report the synthesis, crystal structure, and thermal, dielectric, phonon, and magnetic properties of [NH2-CH(+)-NH2][Mn(HCOO)3] (FMDMn). The anionic framework of [(Mn(HCOO)3(-)] is counterbalanced by formamidinium (FMD(+)) cations located in the cavities of the framework. These cations form extensive N-H···O hydrogen bonding with the framework. The divalent manganese ions have octahedral geometry and are bridged by the formate in an anti-anti mode of coordination. We have found that FMDMn undergoes a structural phase transition around 335 K. According to the X-ray diffraction, the compound shows R3̅c symmetry at 355 K and C2/c symmetry at 295 and 110 K. The FMD(+) cations are dynamically disordered in the high-temperature phase, and the disorder leads to very large bandwidths of Raman and IR bands corresponding to vibrations of the NH2 groups. Temperature-dependent studies show that the phase transition in FMDMn is associated with ordering of the FMD(+) cations. Detailed analysis shows, however, that these cations still exhibit some reorientational motions down to about 200 K. The ordering of the FMD(+) cations is associated with significant distortion of the anionic framework. On the basis of the magnetic data, FMDMn is a weak ferromagnet with the critical temperature Tc = 8.0 K.
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