Updates from "SlideTronics"

The field of sliding ferroelectricity is gaining growing attention, in part, following our work on "interfacial ferroelectricity” back in 2021 [Science 372,1462-1466]. In that work, we have further introduced the term “Slide-Tronics” to point to wider multi-ferroic opportunities enabled by electric control of crystalline phases. Moreover, we extended the single-interface physics into multilayer multipolar TMDs, reporting a unique “Ladder-Ferroelectricity” [Nature 612, 465–469, 2022], with a pristine electronic response to the so-called "polar catastrophe" scenario, [Adv. Materials 202400750, 2024].<br/>Beyond ferroelectric binary compounds, the polarizations extend to graphitic polytypes, which are raising much interest in the low-energy, correlated phases, community. As we have recently found, graphitic polytypes also host spontaneous internal polarization [Adv. Phys. Research 2300095, 2024], and hence can extend the multi-ferroic sliding response into non-volatile correlated transition.<br/>The talk will discuss the stacking stability, vdW adhesions, planar deformations, electronic overlaps and band hybridization that governs the mechanical and electro-optical response of the polytypes. Moreover, by identifying the main structural switching mechanisms we suggest future directions to guide the specialized vdW community members that focus on unstable “twisted” moiré systems.