Dipolar glass and strong magneto-electric coupling within a purely organic system

There is much interest in the search for novel materials that show ferroelectric as well as magneto-electric coupling, such as that observed in multiferroics. Within organic based materials the electronic polarisation can come from a charge distribution across a molecule or molecules and so one must search for systems that have a electronic (and magnetic) dipole that is intrinsic. One such material is tetraethylammonium bis-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TEA(TCNQ)$_2$) which is a charge transfer system where there is a single electron delocalised across a TCNQ dimer. We show that dielectric measurements yield anomalies at the Peierls structural distortion and on going through the spin-Peierls transition. In both cases the electric response is glassy and at low temperature the corresponding magnetic measurements evidence the strong magneto-electric coupling within the material showing analogies to spin glass systems.