Hysteresislike behavior in meta-nitroaniline crystals

In this paper we report, for the first time, an experimentally observed hys teresislike variation of lattice parameter of the organic crystal 2-nitro a niline (mNA) under the influence of an externally applied de electric field . Calculations have been made to determine whether the main features of the hysteresislike behavior can be explained in terms of the geometrical disto rtions of isolated mNA molecules or are dominated by molecular interactions . The results show that the main features of the nonlinearity can be explai ned in terms of changes in the acceptor-donor properties of isolated mNA mo lecules.