Nanowerk September 7, 2021
An international team of researchers (USA – MIT, Japan) has demonstrated that when two single sheets of boron nitride are stacked parallel to each other, at room temperature, the material becomes ferroelectric, in which positive and negative charges in the material spontaneously head to different sides, or poles. Upon the application of an external electric field, those charges switch sides, reversing the polarization. Twisting the boron nitride sheets by a small angle changes the dynamics of switching because of the formation of moiré ferroelectricity with staggered polarization. The coupling between vertical polarization and horizontal motion is enabled by the lateral rigidity of boron nitride. According to the researchers other new ferroelectrics could be produced using the same technique. The ferroelectricity persists to room temperature while keeping the high mobility of graphene, paving the way for potential ultrathin nonvolatile memory applications…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE