Two-dimensional metals for piezotronics devices based on Berry curvature dipole

TL;DR

This paper predicts that strain can induce a Berry curvature dipole in 2D metallic materials, enabling nonlinear Hall effects and piezotronic applications, which were previously limited to insulators.

Contribution

It introduces the concept that 2D metals can exhibit piezotronics phenomena via strain-controlled Berry curvature dipoles, expanding the scope beyond insulators.

Findings

Strain can switch the Berry curvature dipole in 2D metals.

Uniaxial strain induces observable nonlinear Hall effects.

2D 1H-MX2 metals are ideal for piezotronics applications.

Abstract

Piezotronics is an emerging field, which exploits strain to control the transport properties in condensed matters. At present, piezotronics research majorly focuses on insulators with tunable electric dipole by strain. Metals are excluded in this type of applications due to the absence of electric dipole. The recently discovered Berry curvature dipole can exist in metals, thus introduces the possibility of the piezotronics phenomena in them. In this paper, we predict that strain can switch the Berry curvature dipole, and lead the nonlinear Hall effect in the two-dimensional (2D) 1$H$-MX$_2$ (M=Nb, Ta; X=S, Se). Based on symmetry analysis and first-principles calculations, we show these 2D monolayer metals have the desired piezotronics property: without strain the Berry curvature dipole is eliminated by symmetry, prohibiting the nonlinear Hall effect; while uniaxial strain can effectively reduce the symmetry to introduce sizable Berry curvature dipole, and it can generate observable Hall voltage in a reasonable experimental condition. Therefore, our work manifests that the 2D metallic 1$H$-MX$_2$ (M=Nb, Ta; X=S, Se) are the ideal platform for piezotronics.