Room-temperature vertical ferroelectricity in rhenium diselenide induced by interlayer sliding

Abstract

One variety of ferroelectricity that results from lateral relative movements between the adjacent atomic layers is referred to as sliding ferroelectricity, which generates an interfacial charge transfer and hence a polarization reversal. The mechanism of sliding ferroelectricity existent in van der Waals crystals is quite distinct from the conventional ferroelectric switching mechanisms mediated by ion displacement. It creates new possibilities for the design of two-dimensional (2D) ferroelectrics since it can be achieved even in non-polar systems. Before 2D ferroelectrics can be widely employed for practical implementations, however, there is still significant work to be done on several fronts, such as exploring ferroelectricity possibly in more potential 2D systems. Here, we report the experimental observation of room-temperature robust vertical ferroelectricity in layered semiconducting rhenium diselenide (ReSe₂), a representative member of the transition metal dichalcogenides material family, based on a combined research of nanoscale piezoresponse and second harmonic generation measurements. While no such ferroelectric behavior was seen in 1L ReSe₂, 2L ReSe₂ exhibits vertical ferroelectricity at ambient environment. Based on density-functional theory calculations, we deduce that the microscopic origin of ferroelectricity for ReSe₂ is uncompensated vertical charge transfer that is dependent on in-plane translation and switchable upon interlayer sliding. Our findings have important ramifications for the ongoing development of sliding ferroelectricity since the semiconducting properties and low switching barrier of ReSe₂ open up the fascinating potential for functional nanoelectronics applications.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

rhenium diselenide / transition metal dichalcogenides / vertical ferroelectricity / sliding ferroelectricity

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Electronic supplementary materials

The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-023-1304-4 and https://journal.hep.com.cn/fop/EN/10.1007/s11467-023-1304-4. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Figures showing CVT growth, detailed XRD patterns, detailed Raman spectra, ferroelectric transition temperature for 2L ReSe₂, and comparison of the ferroelectric properties of ReSe₂ and ReS₂.

Declarations

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 12004182 and T2125004), Jiangsu Province Science Foundation (No. BK20200481), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2021M691587).

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