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arXiv · 2211.04066

Observation of room-temperature ferroelectricity in elemental Te nanowires

Jinlei Zhang·Jiayong Zhang·Yaping Qi·Shuainan Gong·Run Zhao·Hongbin Yang·Zhenping Wu·Dapeng Cui·Lin Wang·Chunlan Ma·Ju Gao·Yong P. Chen·Yucheng Jiang
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Abstract

Ferroelectrics are essential in low-dimensional memory devices for multi-bit storage and high-density integration. A polar structure is a necessary premise for ferroelectricity, mainly existing in compounds. However, it is usually rare in elemental materials, causing a lack of spontaneous electric polarization. Here, we report an unexpected room-temperature ferroelectricity in few-chain Te nanowires. Out-of-plane ferroelectric loops and domain reversal are observed by piezoresponse force microscopy. Through density functional theory, we attribute the ferroelectricity to the ion-displacement created by the interlayer interaction between lone pair electrons. Ferroelectric polarization can induce a strong field effect on the transport along the Te chain, supporting a self-gated field-effect transistor. It enables a nonvolatile memory with high in-plane mobility, zero supply voltage, multilevel resistive states, and a high on/off ratio. Our work provides new opportunities for elemental ferroelectrics with polar structures and paves a way towards applications such as low-power dissipation electronics and computing-in-memory devices.

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Jinlei Zhang, Jiayong Zhang, Yaping Qi, Shuainan Gong, Run Zhao, Hongbin Yang, Zhenping Wu, Dapeng Cui, Lin Wang, Chunlan Ma, Ju Gao, Yong P. Chen, Yucheng Jiang. 2022-11-08. Observation of room-temperature ferroelectricity in elemental Te nanowires. https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.04066

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