Nonlinear Hall signatures of ferroelectric switching in atomically thin WTe<sub>2</sub>

ORAL

Abstract

Recent experiments have observed nonlinear Hall effects(NLHEs) in atomically thin WTe2, an ultrathin ferroelectric material which may enable miniaturizing ferroelectric memories. However, signatures of ferroelectricity in NLHEs have remained elusive. In this work, we demonstrate that the direction and magnitude of nonlinear Hall currents can be highly sensitive to the ferroelectric polarization in WTe2. In particular, there exists a wide experimental regime in which different polarization states are associated with opposite Hall current directions. We point out that such strong NLHE signatures of ferroelectricity originate from polarity-dependent Berry curvature dipoles, which arises from the broken mirror symmetry under strong out-of-plane displacement fields near polarity-switching points. Our work establishes the polarity-dependent NLHE as a novel scheme for fast and nondestructive reading in WTe2-based ferroelectric memory devices.

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Presenters

  • Benjamin T. Zhou

    • Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Authors

  • Benjamin T. Zhou

    • Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

  • Cheng-Ping Zhang

    • Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
    • Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

  • Xuejian Gao

    • Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
    • Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

  • Kaifei Kang

    • Cornell University
    • School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University

  • Kin Fai Mak

    • Cornell University
    • School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University
    • Cornell University, NY, USA
    • Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University

  • Kam Tuen Law

    • Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
    • Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
    • Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
    • Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China)