Alexei Gruverman

Tutorial

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Two-Dimensional Ferroelectrics: Recent Developments and Future Trends

Advances in fabrication of atomically thin structures coupled with progress in their structural and functional characterization by electron and local probe techniques as well as theoretical modeling led to a strong progress in understanding of the finite-size effects in ferroelectrics. Recent theoretical predictions and experimental demonstration of ferroelectricity in van der Waals materials present exciting possibilities for development of the two-dimensional (2D) ferroelectric semiconducting materials with high mobility, small bandgap and polarization-controlled transport properties for application in scalable low-power advanced electronic devices. This lecture will review the emergence of the stable room-temperature polar ordering in 2D van der Waals materials related to different mechanisms such as structural distortion, intralayer covalent bonding, ionic displacement and surface chemical functionalization. It will be followed by discussion of recent progress in experimental studies of 2D ferroelectric materials by various characterization methods. Novel device concepts based on 2D semiconductor/ferroelectric heterostructures and their applications in modern nanoelectronics devices, such as nonvolatile memories, negative capacitance transistors, neuromorphic structures, and reconfigurable nanodevices will be reviewed. Finally, an outlook for future trends and challenges in 2D ferroelectrics will be presented.

Presenter Bio

Dr Alexei Gruverman is a Charles Bessey Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His research interests are in the field of scanning probe microscopy of functional materials, electronic phenomena in ferroics, and information storage technologies. Dr Gruverman has a diverse set of expertise acquired in a leading semiconducting company and academic research environment in prominent universities in USA, Europe and Asia. Prior to joining UNL, he held research scientist positions at the Joint Research Center for Atom Technology in Tsukuba, Japan, and at Sony Corporation, Yokohama, Japan, and research professorship position at the North Carolina State University, USA. He has co-authored over 240 papers in peer-reviewed international journals (WoS h-index 65) including Science, Nature Materials and Physical Review Letters, which were cited more than 16,000 times, a number of book chapters and review articles and has edited three books and several special journal issues on ferroelectricity. He is a recipient of the 2004 Ikeda Foundation Award, ISIF 2010 Outstanding Achievement Award, IEEE 2017 Ferroelectrics Recognition Award and Humboldt Research Award in 2020. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and an International fellow of the Japan Society of Applied Physics. Among his most important scientific accomplishments is the development of Piezoresponse Force Microscopy, manipulation of ferroelectric domains at the nanoscale, development of an approach for fast switching dynamics in ferroelectric capacitors, demonstration of the tunneling electroresistance effect in ferroelectrics, and nanoscale studies of electromechanical behavior of biological systems.