Spotlight

SMSE Top Notch Paper Published

07/02/2023

Recently, the functional materials team of SDJU School of Materials Science and Engineering (SMSE), via cooperation with Academician Chu Junhao’s team of East China Normal University, published a research paper entitled Sliding ferroelectricity in van der Waals layered γ-InSe semiconductor on the top international journal Nature Communications. This paper studies unconventional room-temperature ferroelectricity, both out-of-plane and in-plane, in vdW-layered γ-InSe semiconductor triggered by yttrium-doping (InSe:Y), thus expanding ferroelectric candidates for next-generation nanoelectronics.

The research samples, layered γ-InSe and InSe crystals were grown in Shanghai Dianji University. InSe crystals are difficult to grow, mainly due to reasons that Se element is volatile, a combination of In and Se may produce 5 to 6 compounds, and the existence of complex peritectic reactions in the In-Se binary system. In response to these problems, SDJU functional material team, by systematically studying the phases and crystallization of the material system, designed suitable composition measurements to solve a series of key technical difficulties in InSe synthesis and  Bridgman method crystal growth. By optimizing crystal growth parameters, a high-quality, stoichiometric ratio-controllable layered γ-InSe single crystal was successfully grown, which laid an important foundation for the analysis of the ferroelectric physical properties of the material in the next step.

The study was supported as a National Natural Science Foundation Project and a SMEC Shuguang Program. (By School of Materials Science and Engineering)


Article link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35490-0

 

Screenshot of the paper in the "Nature communications"


Microstructure analysis of layered γ-InSe crystal