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Asymmetric conducting route and potential redistribution determine the polarization-dependent conductivity in layered ferroelectrics

Nature Nanotechnology volume 19, pages 173–180 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Precise control of the conductivity of layered ferroelectric semiconductors is required to make these materials suitable for advanced transistor, memory and logic circuits. Although proof-of-principle devices based on layered ferroelectrics have been demonstrated, it remains unclear how the polarization inversion induces conductivity changes. Therefore, function design and performance optimization remain cumbersome. Here we combine ab initio calculations with transport experiments to unveil the mechanism underlying the polarization-dependent conductivity in ferroelectric channel field-effect transistors. We find that the built-in electric field gives rise to an asymmetric conducting route formed by the hidden Stark effect and competes with the potential redistribution caused by the external field of the gate. Furthermore, leveraging our mechanistic findings, we control the conductivity threshold in α-In2Se3 ferroelectric channel field-effect transistors. We demonstrate logic-in-memory functionality through the implementation of electrically self-switchable primary (AND, OR) and composite (XOR, NOR, NAND) logic gates. Our work provides mechanistic insights into conductivity modulation in a broad class of layered ferroelectrics, providing foundations for their application in logic and memory electronics.

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Fig. 1: Hidden Stark effect in the layered ferroelectric α-In2Se3 enables the formation of an asymmetric conducting route.
Fig. 2: Potential redistribution determined by the polarization direction with respect to the gate.
Fig. 3: Asymmetric conducting route and gate-induced potential redistribution for controlled conductivity threshold modulation.
Fig. 4: Experimental implementation of conductivity threshold modulation for self-switchable logic-in-memory.
Fig. 5: Potential verification for electrically self-switchable functional logic-in-memory circuits.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFA1200500 (P.Z.)), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12374025 (R.Q.), 61925402, 62090032 (P.Z.) and 62304042 (S.W.)), the Fund of State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications) (R.Q.), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (19JC1416600 (P.Z.)), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022M720032 (S.W.)), the Shanghai Post-Doctoral Excellence Program (2022091) and Sailing Program (23YF1402100) (S.W.)), and the High-Performance Computing Platform of BUPT.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Ruge Quhe, Ziye Di, Shuiyuan Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications and School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, P. R. China

    Ruge Quhe, Jiaxin Zhang, Yuxuan Sun & Lingxue Zhang

  2. Shanghai Key Lab for Future Computing Hardware and System, School of Microelectronics, Fudan University, Shanghai, P. R. China

    Ziye Di, Shuiyuan Wang & Peng Zhou

  3. School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Shaanxi University of Technology, Hanzhong, P. R. China

    Ying Guo

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Contributions

S.W. and P.Z. conceived the idea and supervised the work. R.Q., S.W. and Z.D. co-wrote the manuscript. R.Q. and Y.G. performed the calculations. Z.D. and S.W. fabricated devices for electronic measurements, conducted the experiments and analysed the data. J.Z., Y.S. and L.Z. analysed the data and discussed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ruge Quhe, Shuiyuan Wang or Peng Zhou.

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Nature Nanotechnology thanks Yen-Fu Lin, Geunsik Lee and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Quhe, R., Di, Z., Zhang, J. et al. Asymmetric conducting route and potential redistribution determine the polarization-dependent conductivity in layered ferroelectrics. Nat. Nanotechnol. 19, 173–180 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01539-4

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