Direct measurement of ferroelectric polarization in a tunable semimetal

de la Barrera, Sergio C.; Cao, Qingrui; Gao, Yang; Gao, Yuan; Bheemarasetty, Vineetha S.; Yan, Jiaqiang; Mandrus, David G.; Zhu, Wenguang; Xiao, Di; Hunt, Benjamin M.

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-25587-3

Title: Direct measurement of ferroelectric polarization in a tunable semimetal

Journal Article · 05 September 2021 · Nature Communications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25587-3 · OSTI ID:1818823

; Cao, Qingrui; Gao, Yang; Gao, Yuan; Bheemarasetty, Vineetha S.; Yan, Jiaqiang; Mandrus, David G.;

; Xiao, Di;

Abstract Ferroelectricity, the electrostatic counterpart to ferromagnetism, has long been thought to be incompatible with metallicity due to screening of electric dipoles and external electric fields by itinerant charges. Recent measurements, however, demonstrated signatures of ferroelectric switching in the electrical conductance of bilayers and trilayers of WTe ₂ , a semimetallic transition metal dichalcogenide with broken inversion symmetry. An especially promising aspect of this system is that the density of electrons and holes can be continuously tuned by an external gate voltage. This degree of freedom enables measurement of the spontaneous polarization as free carriers are added to the system. Here we employ capacitive sensing in dual-gated mesoscopic devices of bilayer WTe ₂ to directly measure the spontaneous polarization in the metallic state and quantify the effect of free carriers on the polarization in the conduction and valence bands, separately. We compare our results to a low-energy model for the electronic bands and identify the layer-polarized states that contribute to transport and polarization simultaneously. Bilayer WTe ₂ is thus shown to be a fully tunable ferroelectric metal and an ideal platform for exploring polar ordering, ferroelectric transitions, and applications in the presence of free carriers.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; SC0012509; SC0018115

OSTI ID:: 1818823

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 12; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

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Title: Direct measurement of ferroelectric polarization in a tunable semimetal

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