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arXiv · 2010.05182

Interfacial Ferroelectricity by van-der-Waals Sliding

Maayan Vizner Stern·Yuval Waschitz·Wei Cao·Iftach Nevo·Kenji Watanabe·Takashi Taniguchi·Eran Sela·Michael Urbakh·Oded Hod·Moshe Ben Shalom
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Abstract

Despite their ionic nature, many layered diatomic crystals avoid internal electric polarization by forming a centrosymmetric lattice at their optimal anti-parallel van-der-Waals stacking. Here, we report a stable ferroelectric order emerging at the interface between two naturally-grown flakes of hexagonal-boron-nitride, which are stacked together in a metastable non-centrosymmetric parallel orientation. We observe alternating domains of inverted normal polarization, caused by a lateral shift of one lattice site between the domains. Reversible polarization switching coupled to lateral sliding is achieved by scanning a biased tip above the surface. Our calculations trace the origin of the phenomenon to a subtle interplay between charge redistribution and ionic displacement, and our minimal cohesion model predicts further venues to explore the unique "slidetronics" switching.

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Maayan Vizner Stern, Yuval Waschitz, Wei Cao, Iftach Nevo, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Eran Sela, Michael Urbakh, Oded Hod, Moshe Ben Shalom. 2020-10-11. Interfacial Ferroelectricity by van-der-Waals Sliding. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe8177

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