# Room-temperature ferroelectricity in MoTe2 down to the atomic monolayer limit

Article · Shuoguo Yuan, Xin Luo, Hung‐Lit Chan, Chengcheng Xiao, Yawei Dai, Maohai Xie, Jianhua Hao

- Archive id: doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09669-x
- Published: 2019-04-16
- Venue: Nature Communications
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09669-x
- PMID: 30992431
- Citations: 510
- Source URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09669-x
- PDF: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09669-x.pdf
- Provenance: openalex

## Abstract

Abstract Ferroelectrics allow for a wide range of intriguing applications. However, maintaining ferroelectricity has been hampered by intrinsic depolarization effects. Here, by combining first-principles calculations and experimental studies, we report on the discovery of robust room-temperature out-of-plane ferroelectricity which is realized in the thinnest monolayer MoTe 2 with unexploited distorted 1T ( d 1T) phase. The origin of the ferroelectricity in d 1T-MoTe 2 results from the spontaneous symmetry breaking due to the relative atomic displacements of Mo atoms and Te atoms. Furthermore, a large ON/OFF resistance ratio is achieved in ferroelectric devices composed of MoTe 2 -based van der Waals heterostructure. Our work demonstrates that ferroelectricity can exist in two-dimensional layered material down to the atomic monolayer limit, which can result in new functionalities and achieve unexpected applications in atomic-scale electronic devices.

_Abstract reproduced under CC-BY (publisher license, via OpenAlex)._

Topics: [2D Materials & Van der Waals Heterostructures](https://space-kitty.com/topics/2d-materials)

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