In-plane ferroelectric tunnel junctions based on 2D α-In2Se3/semiconductor heterostructures

Autor: Zifang Liu, Pengfei Hou, Lizhong Sun, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Jie Jiang, Qiong Yang
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: npj Computational Materials, Vol 9, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2057-3960
DOI: 10.1038/s41524-022-00953-x
Popis: Abstract Ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) have great potential for application in high-density non-volatile memories. Recently, α-In2Se3 was found to exhibit robust in-plane and out-of-plane ferroelectric polarizations at a monolayer thickness, which is ideal to serve as a ferroelectric component in miniaturized electronic devices. In this work, we design two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures composed of an α-In2Se3 ferroelectric and a hexagonal IV–VI semiconductor and propose an in-plane FTJ based on these heterostructures. Our first-principles calculations show that the electronic band structure of the designed heterostructures can be switched between insulating and metallic states by ferroelectric polarization. We demonstrate that the in-plane FTJ exhibits two distinct transport regimes, tunneling and metallic, for OFF and ON states, respectively, leading to a giant tunneling electroresistance effect with the OFF/ON resistance ratio exceeding 1 × 104. Our results provide a promising approach for the high-density ferroelectric memory based on the 2D ferroelectric/semiconductor heterostructures.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals