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Berry curvature memory through electrically driven stacking transitions

Nature Physics volume 16, pages 1028–1034 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

In two-dimensional layered quantum materials, the stacking order of the layers determines both the crystalline symmetry and electronic properties such as the Berry curvature, topology and electron correlation1,2,3,4. Electrical stimuli can influence quasiparticle interactions and the free-energy landscape5,6, making it possible to dynamically modify the stacking order and reveal hidden structures that host different quantum properties. Here, we demonstrate electrically driven stacking transitions that can be applied to design non-volatile memory based on Berry curvature in few-layer WTe2. The interplay of out-of-plane electric fields and electrostatic doping controls in-plane interlayer sliding and creates multiple polar and centrosymmetric stacking orders. In situ nonlinear Hall transport reveals that such stacking rearrangements result in a layer-parity-selective Berry curvature memory in momentum space, where the sign reversal of the Berry curvature and its dipole only occurs in odd-layer crystals. Our findings open an avenue towards exploring coupling between topology, electron correlations and ferroelectricity in hidden stacking orders and demonstrate a new low-energy-cost, electrically controlled topological memory in the atomically thin limit.

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Fig. 1: Signatures of two different electrically driven phase transitions in WTe2.
Fig. 2: Observation of transition between Td and 1T′ stackings as the origin for type I hysteresis.
Fig. 3: Td,↑ to Td,↓ stacking transitions with preserved crystal orientation in type II hysteresis.
Fig. 4: Layer-parity-selective Berry curvature memory behaviour in Td,↑ to Td,↓ stacking transition.

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Source data are provided with this paper. All other data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, under contract number DE-AC02-76SF00515 (J.X., E.J.S., C.M.N., P.M., C.D.P., T.P.D., A.M.L.). E.J.S. acknowledges additional support from Stanford GLAM Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. C.M.N. acknowledges additional support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through a Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-114747). H.W. and X.Q. acknowledge support by the NSF under award number DMR-1753054. J.X., A.M.L. and C.D.P. acknowledge support for theory calculations through the Center for Non-Perturbative Studies of Functional Materials. Y.W., S.W. and X.Z. acknowledge support from the US DOE, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, within the van der Waals Heterostructures Program (KCWF16) under contract no. DE-AC02-05-CH11231 for electrical transport measurement, and from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Office of Sponsored Research award OSR-2016-CRG5-2996 for device design and fabrication. First-principles electronic structure and Berry curvature calculations by H.W. and X.Q. were conducted with the advanced computing resources provided by Texas A&M High Performance Research Computing. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF)/Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF), supported by the NSF under award ECCS-1542152.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jun Xiao, Ying Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Jun Xiao, Philipp Muscher, Thomas P. Devereaux & Aaron M. Lindenberg

  2. SIMES, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA

    Jun Xiao, C. D. Pemmaraju, Edbert J. Sie, Thomas P. Devereaux & Aaron M. Lindenberg

  3. Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Ying Wang, Siqi Wang & Xiang Zhang

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Hua Wang & Xiaofeng Qian

  5. Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Edbert J. Sie & Thomas P. Devereaux

  6. Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Clara M. Nyby

  7. Faculties of Science and Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Xiang Zhang

  8. PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA

    Aaron M. Lindenberg

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Contributions

A.M.L. and X.Z. supervised the project; J.X. and A.M.L. conceived the research; J.X. and Y.W. performed the optical and electrical experiments; Y.W., J.X., S.W. and P.M. fabricated the devices; H.W. and X.Q. performed first-principles calculations on the band structure and the Berry curvature through the stacking transitions; C.D.P. conducted theoretical calculations on crystal structures under the supervision of T.P.D.; J.X., Y.W., E.J.S., C.M.N., S.W. and P.M. analysed and interpreted the data with A.M.L. and X.Z.; all authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xiang Zhang or Aaron M. Lindenberg.

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Competing interests

J.X. and A.M.L. have submitted a patent application (‘Low-energy cost Berry curvature memory based on nanometer-thick layered materials’; US no. 62/940,181) that covers a specific aspect of the manuscript. The other authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Physics thanks Li-kun Shi and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–13, discussion and Table 1.

Supplementary Video 1

Berry curvature evolution during stacking transitions.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Data used to plot Fig. 1c,d.

Source Data Fig. 2

Data used to plot Fig. 2a,b,d,e.

Source Data Fig. 3

Data used to plot Fig. 3a,b,c.

Source Data Fig. 4

Data used to plot Fig. 4b,c,d.

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Xiao, J., Wang, Y., Wang, H. et al. Berry curvature memory through electrically driven stacking transitions. Nat. Phys. 16, 1028–1034 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0947-0

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