Phys.org June 30, 2021
An international team of researchers (Israel, Japan) reports a stable ferroelectric order emerging at the interface between two naturally grown flakes of hexagonal boron nitride, which were stacked together in a metastable non-centrosymmetric parallel orientation. They observed alternating domains of inverted normal polarization, caused by a lateral shift of one lattice site between the domains. Reversible polarization switching coupled to lateral sliding was achieved by scanning a biased tip above the surface. Their calculations trace the origin of the phenomenon to a subtle interplay between charge redistribution and ionic displacement and provide intuitive insights to explore the interfacial polarization and its distinctive “slidetronics” switching mechanism. The new technology may be a way for storing electric information…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Credit: Tel Aviv University