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Ferroelectric material (from 42) materials, Cheema said. “This greatly ex-
pands the materials design space for next-
generation electronics to include materials
This is surprising for a material that is not
even typically ferroelectric in its bulk form. already compatible with silicon technolo-
gies.”
Polarization switched Beyond graphene
The researchers were also able to switch
the polarization in this ultrathin mate- As Cheema noted, simply growing just a
rial back and forth with a small voltage, few atomic layers of a 3D material can
enabling the thinnest demonstration of a offer the potential for a new class of 2D
working memory ever reported on silicon. materials — atomically-thin 3D materials
— that go beyond conventional sheets of
2D materials like graphene.
It also offers substantial promise for en-
ergy-efficient electronics, especially con-
sidering conventional zirconium dioxide is The researchers hope this work will moti-
already present in today’s state-of-the-art vate more research into two-dimensional
silicon chips. 3D materials exhibiting emergent electron-
ic phenomena relevant for energy-efficient
“This work takes a key step electronics.
towards integrating ferro-
electrics into highly scaled This work was led by Cheema and Sayeef
microelectronics,” said Suraj Salahuddin of UC Berkeley, along with co-
Cheema, a postdoctoral re- first authors Nirmaan Shanker and Shang-
searcher at UC Berkeley, the Lin Hsu.
Suraj Cheema first author of the study.
At beamline 33-BM-C of Argonne’s Ad-
Visualizing the ferroelectric behavior of vanced Photon Source, working with
such ultrathin systems required the use of Argonne physicists Freeland and Zhan
Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source, a DOE Zhang, the researchers employed synchro-
Office of Science user facility. tron X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-
ray diffraction to investigate the structural
X-ray provides insight evolution of ferroelectricity to the atomic
“X-ray diffraction gives needed insight into scale and explore its electronic origins.
how this ferroelectricity emerges,” said
Argonne physicist John Freeland, another Molecular foundry
study author. At DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab-
oratory’s Advanced Light Source and Mo-
Beyond the immediate technological im- lecular Foundry, researchers collaborated
pact, this work also has significant implica- with with scientists Padraic Shafer and Jim
tions for designing new two-dimensional Ciston.
materials.
The material’s ferroelectric crystal struc-
“Simply squeezing 3D materials to their ture was studied using soft X-rays and
2D thickness limit offers a straightforward- transmission electron microscopy. anl.gov
yet-effective route to unlocking hidden
phenomena in a wide variety of simple Consider a Business Card ad in TAP TIMES!
