Stacking-engineered ferroelectricity in bilayer boron nitride

Abstract

Properties of layered van der Waals structures can depend sensitively on the stacking arrangement of constituent layers. This phenomenon has been exploited to engineer superconducting, correlated insulator, and magnetic states. Two groups now show that ferroelectricity can also be engineered through stacking: Parallel-stacked bilayers of hexagonal boron nitride exhibit ferroelectric switching even though the bulk material is not ferroelectric (see the Perspective by Tsymbal). To explore these phenomena, Yasuda et al. used transport measurements, whereas Vizner Stern et al. focused on atomic force microscopy.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jun 25, 2021
Source ID
10.1126/science.abd3230

Entities

People

  • Kenji Watanabe
  • Kenji Yasuda
  • Pablo Jarillo-Herrero
  • Takashi Taniguchi
  • Xirui Wang

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • Division of Electrical, Communications & Cyber Systems
  • Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
  • Japan Science and Technology Agency
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
  • National Institute for Materials Science
  • National Science Foundation
  • United States Department of Energy

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Quantum Chemistry
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene