Distinguish the Orientation of Sliding Ferroelectricity by Second-Harmonic Generation

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that second-harmonic generation (SHG) can distinguish the orientation of sliding ferroelectricity in 2D materials, combining computational and experimental methods to enable in-situ detection and potential optoelectronic applications.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel approach to identify ferroelectric polarization orientation in 2D sliding ferroelectrics using SHG responses, supported by both simulations and experiments.

Findings

SHG responses differ for upward and downward polarization states.

SHG polar directions are sensitive to ferroelectric orientation.

Experimental validation on SnP2S6 confirms theoretical predictions.

Abstract

As the emerging ferroelectric (FE) materials, the ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) sliding ferroelectrics without phase-matching bottleneck, usually exhibit the pronounced second harmonic generation (SHG) responses. Despite the structural polarity of sliding ferroelectrics can be precisely detected via SHG characterizations, distinguishing the orientations of sliding ferroelectricity based on SHG responses has rarely been realized, as SHG intensities for upward and downward polarization states are supposed to be same. In current work, combining computational simulations and experimental characterizations, the orientation of sliding ferroelectricity is demonstrated to be readily distinguishable via SHG responses in 2D SnP2S6 (SnP2Se6), a new sliding FE material. Specifically, owing to the unique symmetry operation within FE-SnP2S6 (SnP2Se6), the intersection between \c{hi}xxx and \c{hi}yyy SHG susceptibility coefficients with opposite signs leads to the effective rotation of SHG polar directions upon switching of sliding ferroelectricity. Moreover, the remarkable dependence of SHG polar directions on the orientation of sliding ferroelectricity is further validated by experimental characterizations performed on SnP2S6 crystal in a single FE domain structural form. This work opens up the avenue for in-situ detecting the ferroelectricity orientation of 2D sliding ferroelectrics based on SHG nonlinear optical responses, and also demonstrates the controllable optical nonlinearly for new "slidetronics" applications.