Electric field induced metallic behavior in thin crystals of ferroelectric {\alpha}-In2Se3

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that ferroelectric semiconductor thin crystals of {}-In2Se3 in FeSmFETs exhibit electric field induced metallic behavior, enabling new functionalities in ferroelectric metals and device integration.

Contribution

It introduces ferroelectric semiconductor FETs using {}-In2Se3 as the channel, revealing electric field induced metallic states and polarization reorientation.

Findings

Evidence of electric field induced metallic state in {}-In2Se3

Reorientation of electrical polarization observed

Potential for combined data storage and logic devices

Abstract

Ferroelectric semiconductor field effect transistors (FeSmFETs), which employ ferroelectric semiconducting thin crystals of {\alpha}-In2Se3 as the channel material as opposed to the gate dielectric in conventional ferroelectric FETs (FeFETs) were prepared and measured from room to the liquid-helium temperatures. These FeSmFETs were found to yield evidence for the reorientation of the electrical polarization and an electric field induced metallic state in {\alpha}-In2Se3. Our findings suggest that FeSmFETs can serve as a platform for the fundamental study of ferroelectric metals as well as the exploration of the integration of data storage and logic operations in the same device.