Ferroelectricity in Niobium Oxide Dihalides NbOX2 (X = Cl, I): A Macroscopic- to Microscopic-Scale Study

Chaofei Liu, Xiuying Zhang, Xinyun Wang, Ziying Wang, Ibrahim Abdelwahab, Ivan Verzhbitskiy, Yan Shao, Goki Eda, Wanxin Sun, Lei Shen, Kian Ping Loh*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

2D materials with ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties are of interest for energy harvesting, memory storage and electromechanical systems. Here, we present a systematic study of the ferroelectric properties in NbOX2 (X = Cl, I) across different spatial scales. The in-plane ferroelectricity in NbOX2 was investigated using transport and piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) measurements, where it was observed that NbOCl2 has a stronger ferroelectric order than NbOI2. A high local field, exerted by both PFM and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tips, was found to induce 1D collinear ferroelectric strips in NbOCl2. STM imaging reveals the unreconstructed atomic structures of NbOX2 surfaces, and scanning tunneling spectroscopy was used to probe the electronic states induced at defect (vacancy) sites.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7170-7179
Number of pages10
JournalACS Nano
Volume17
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Apr 2023
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • 1D collinearity
  • NbOX
  • defect bound states
  • ferroelectricity
  • van der Waals materials

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