Nonlinear phononic slidetronics

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Rani, Pooja, Juraschek, Dominik M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Rani, Pooja
Juraschek, Dominik M.
author_facet Rani, Pooja
Juraschek, Dominik M.
contents Van der Waals ferroelectrics are conventionally switched by sliding the different layers between stacking orders with opposing electric polarizations. Ultrashort laser pulses have been proposed to launch shear modes and induce switching, with often unfeasible large pulse energies however. Here, we demonstrate switching of ferroelectricity in bilayer hexagonal boron nitride through nonlinearly excited phonons. We show that the efficiencies of conventional coherent phonon excitation mechanisms, including infrared absorption and Raman scattering techniques, are too low to overcome the energy barrier separating the two ferroelectric states. We demonstrate instead that excitation of high-frequency intralayer modes leads to a tilting of the interlayer potential-energy landscape that enables changing the stacking order. Our results provide an avenue towards efficient phononic slidetronics, enabling ultrafast control of the stacking order in van der Waals materials.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_22036
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Nonlinear phononic slidetronics
Rani, Pooja
Juraschek, Dominik M.
Materials Science
Van der Waals ferroelectrics are conventionally switched by sliding the different layers between stacking orders with opposing electric polarizations. Ultrashort laser pulses have been proposed to launch shear modes and induce switching, with often unfeasible large pulse energies however. Here, we demonstrate switching of ferroelectricity in bilayer hexagonal boron nitride through nonlinearly excited phonons. We show that the efficiencies of conventional coherent phonon excitation mechanisms, including infrared absorption and Raman scattering techniques, are too low to overcome the energy barrier separating the two ferroelectric states. We demonstrate instead that excitation of high-frequency intralayer modes leads to a tilting of the interlayer potential-energy landscape that enables changing the stacking order. Our results provide an avenue towards efficient phononic slidetronics, enabling ultrafast control of the stacking order in van der Waals materials.
title Nonlinear phononic slidetronics
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.22036