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

Authors

• Zifang Liu, Xiangtan University
• Pengfei Hou, Xiangtan University
• Lizhong Sun, Xiangtan University
• Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, University of Nebraska at LincolnFollow
• Jie Jiang, Xiangtan University
• Qiong Yang, Xiangtan University

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

1-13-2023

Citation

npj Computational Materials (2023) 9:6 ; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41524-022-00953-x

Comments

Open access

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 highdensity ferroelectric memory based on the 2D ferroelectric/semiconductor heterostructures.