Sign flipping of spontaneous polarization in vapour-deposited films of small polar organic molecules.

Films of polar molecules vapour-deposited on sufficiently cold substrates are not only amorphous, but also exhibit charge polarization across their thickness. This is an effect known for 50 years, but it is very poorly understood and no mechanism exists in the literature that can explain and predict it. We investigated this bulk effect for 18 small organic molecules as a function of substrate temperature (30-130 K).