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Main Authors: Cao, Wei, Deb, Swarup, Stern, Maayan Vizner, Raab, Noam, Urbakh, Michael, Hod, Oded, Kronik, Leeor, Shalom, Moshe Ben
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.20303
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author Cao, Wei
Deb, Swarup
Stern, Maayan Vizner
Raab, Noam
Urbakh, Michael
Hod, Oded
Kronik, Leeor
Shalom, Moshe Ben
author_facet Cao, Wei
Deb, Swarup
Stern, Maayan Vizner
Raab, Noam
Urbakh, Michael
Hod, Oded
Kronik, Leeor
Shalom, Moshe Ben
contents Van der Waals (vdW) polytypes of broken inversion and mirror symmetries were recently shown to exhibit switchable electric polarization even at the ultimate two-layer thin limit. Their out-of-plane polarization was found to accumulate in a ladder-like fashion with each successive layer, offering 2D building blocks for the bottom-up construction of 3D ferroelectrics. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that beyond a critical stack thickness, the accumulated polarization in rhombohedral polytypes of molybdenum disulfide (r-MoS2) saturates. The underlying saturation mechanism, deciphered via DFT and self-consistent Poisson-Schrödinger calculations, point to a purely electronic redistribution involving: (1) polarization-induced bandgap closure that allows for cross-stack charge transfer and the emergence of free surface charge; (2) reduction of the polarization saturation value, as well as the critical thickness at which it is obtained, by the presence of free carriers. The resilience of polar layered structures to atomic surface reconstruction, which is essentially unavoidable in polar 3D crystals, potentially allows for the design of new devices with mobile surface charges. Our findings, which are of general nature, should be accounted for when designing switching and/or conductive devices based on ferroelectric layered materials.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_20303
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Polarization Saturation in Multi-layered Interfacial Ferroelectrics
Cao, Wei
Deb, Swarup
Stern, Maayan Vizner
Raab, Noam
Urbakh, Michael
Hod, Oded
Kronik, Leeor
Shalom, Moshe Ben
Materials Science
Van der Waals (vdW) polytypes of broken inversion and mirror symmetries were recently shown to exhibit switchable electric polarization even at the ultimate two-layer thin limit. Their out-of-plane polarization was found to accumulate in a ladder-like fashion with each successive layer, offering 2D building blocks for the bottom-up construction of 3D ferroelectrics. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that beyond a critical stack thickness, the accumulated polarization in rhombohedral polytypes of molybdenum disulfide (r-MoS2) saturates. The underlying saturation mechanism, deciphered via DFT and self-consistent Poisson-Schrödinger calculations, point to a purely electronic redistribution involving: (1) polarization-induced bandgap closure that allows for cross-stack charge transfer and the emergence of free surface charge; (2) reduction of the polarization saturation value, as well as the critical thickness at which it is obtained, by the presence of free carriers. The resilience of polar layered structures to atomic surface reconstruction, which is essentially unavoidable in polar 3D crystals, potentially allows for the design of new devices with mobile surface charges. Our findings, which are of general nature, should be accounted for when designing switching and/or conductive devices based on ferroelectric layered materials.
title Polarization Saturation in Multi-layered Interfacial Ferroelectrics
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.20303