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arXiv · 1912.12821

Supra-Binary Ferroelectricity in a Nanowire

Wentao Xu·Lihua Wang·Yeongjun Lee·D. ChangMo Yang·Amir Hajibabaei·Cheolmin Park·Tae-Woo Lee·Kwang S. Kim
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Abstract

We report the prediction and observation of supra-binary ferroelectricity in a ferroelectric nanowire (FNW) covered with a semi-cylindrical gate that provides an anisotropic electric field in the FNW. There are gate-voltage-driven transitions between four polarization phases in FNW's cross section, dubbed axial-up, axial-down, radial-in and radial-out. They are determined by the interplay between the topological depolarization energy and the free energy induced by an anisotropic external electric field, in clear distinction from the conventional film-based binary ferroelectricity. When the FNW is mounted on a biased graphene nanoribbon (GNR), these transitions induce exotic current-voltage hysteresis in the FNW-GNR transistor. Our discovery suggests new operating mechanisms of ferroelectric devices. In particular, it enables intrinsic multi-bit information manipulation in parallel to the binary manipulation employed in data storage devices.

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Wentao Xu, Lihua Wang, Yeongjun Lee, D. ChangMo Yang, Amir Hajibabaei, Cheolmin Park, Tae-Woo Lee, Kwang S. Kim. 2019-12-30. Supra-Binary Ferroelectricity in a Nanowire. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202101981

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