"Slide-Tronics"

A ferroelectric system is presented, only two atoms thick. Its intrinsic electric polarization emerges once stacking diatomic hexagonal layers with parallel lattice orientations. Interestingly, the symmetry of these bilayer crystals translates a minute planner shift between the layers, by one inter-atomic spacing, to a vertical flipping of the structure and its out-of-plane polarization. Owing to the interfacially-confined charge redistribution in these systems, we named the phenomena interfacial ferroelectricity. I will discuss the origin and consequences of this confinement from a real and momentum space perspective and the unique polarization switching mechanism by domain wall sliding observed in our experiments.<br/><br/>"Interfacial ferroelectricity by van-der-Waals sliding"<br/>https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe8177