Mixed-Stacking Few-Layer Graphene as an Elemental Weak Ferroelectric Material.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37158207.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c04723 and PMC identifier 10214444.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Ferroelectricity (Valasek, J. <i>Phys. Rev.</i> 1921, 17, 475), a spontaneous formation of electric polarization, is a solid state phenomenon, usually, associated with ionic compounds or complex materials. Here we show that, atypically for elemental solids, few-layer graphenes can host an equilibrium out-of-plane electric polarization, switchable by sliding the constituent graphene sheets. The systems hosting such effect include mixed-stacking tetralayers and thicker (5-9 layers) rhombohedral graphitic films with a twin boundary in the middle of a flake. The predicted electric polarization would also appear in marginally (small-angle) twisted few-layer flakes, where lattice reconstruction would give rise to networks of mesoscale domains with alternating value and sign of out-of-plane polarization.