Tunnel junctions based on interfacial 2D ferroelectrics

Abstract: Van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures have opened new opportunities to develop atomically thin (opto)electronic devices with a wide range of functionalities. The recent focus on manipulating the interlayer twist angle has led to the observation of out-of-plane room temperature ferroelectricity in twisted rhombohedral (R) bilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Here we explore the switching behaviour of sliding ferroelectricity using scanning probe microscopy domain mapping and tunnelling transport measurements. We observe well-pronounced ambipolar switching behaviour in ferroelectric tunnelling junctions (FTJ) with composite ferroelectric/non-polar insulator barriers and support our experimental results with complementary theoretical modelling. Furthermore, we show that the switching behaviour is strongly influenced by the underlying domain structure, allowing fabrication of diverse FTJ devices with various functionalities. We show that to observe the polarisation reversal, at least one partial dislocation must be present in the device area. This behaviour is drastically different from that of conventional ferroelectric materials and its understanding is an important milestone for future development of optoelectronic devices based on sliding ferroelectricity.