Visualizing amorphization in In2Se3, 2D ferroelectric through in situ microscopy

I will discuss our recent and exciting results on in-situ transmission electron microscopy studies on T-phase, polar In₂Se₃ nanowires. Through atomic resolution images, I’ll show that the vdW layers slide with application of current (carrier wind force), creating domain boundaries. We show that intersection of the domain boundaries leads to local amorphous regions, but also create shocks (jerks) that are captured on the microscope. This leads to replication of amorphous nuclei in long range eventually leading to a complete solid-state amorphization of these nanowires. Such an amorphization mechanism is 7-8 orders of magnitude more energy efficient than melt-quench amorphization. These insights, while on one hand may be considered to be text-book models of electrically induced long range solid-state amorphization, have also implications in In2Se3 FES-FETs. I will briefly discuss our most recent foray into the FES-FETs and show how the in situ TEM studies are relevant for these devices.

Reference: G. Modi*, S. Parathe*, et al., Nature (2024), Just accepted