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Coupled polarization dynamics and charge tunneling enable reconfigurable heterojunctions

  • Ce Li
  • , Tianze Yu
  • , Zirui Zhang
  • , Qingsong Deng
  • , Fei Hui
  • , Zhongrui Wang
  • , Mario Lanza
  • , Linfeng Sun*
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • Beijing Institute of Technology
  • Beijing University of Technology
  • Zhengzhou University
  • Southern University of Science and Technology
  • National University of Singapore

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Layered CuInP₂S₆ provides robust ferroelectric polarization and strong local fields, enabling low-voltage, nonvolatile modulation, multilevel states, and analog weight updates for neuromorphic devices. However, devices driven solely by CuInP₂S₆ suffer from limited tunability and single-mechanism control inadequate for large-scale complementary logic and heterogeneous integration. In this work, we construct a ferroelectric heterostructure that simultaneously regulates ferroelectric polarization and charge tunneling, enabling nonvolatile memory operation with an on/off ratio exceeding 106, endurance up to 105 cycles, and stable retention of 16 distinct memory states for over 103s. The distinct modulation effects of polarization and tunneling on channel transport enable controllably reconfigurable adjustment, yielding a high diode rectification ratio. By exploiting the difference between the coercive voltage and the tunneling threshold, multimode regulation of junction configurations (including nn, np, pp, and pn junctions) is realized. In addition, the device achieves logic-in-memory functionality within a single cell. Such a coupled polarization dynamics and tunneling effect enables the device to achieve high integration, energy efficiency, and multifunctionality, effectively reducing circuit complexity for next-generation intelligent computing, sensing, and edge applications.

Original languageEnglish
Article number4036
JournalNature Communications
Volume17
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2026
Externally publishedYes

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