Giant piezoresistivity in a van der Waals material induced by intralayer atomic motions

Lingyun Tang, Zhongquan Mao, Chutian Wang, Qi Fu, Chen Wang, Yichi Zhang, Jingyi Shen, Yuefeng Yin, Bin Shen, Dayong Tan, Qian Li, Yonggang Wang, Nikhil V. Medhekar, Jie Wu, Huiqiu Yuan, Yanchun Li (), Michael S. Fuhrer () and Changxi Zheng ()
Additional contact information
Lingyun Tang: South China University of Technology, Guangzhou
Zhongquan Mao: South China University of Technology, Guangzhou
Chutian Wang: Monash University
Qi Fu: Westlake University
Chen Wang: Westlake University
Yichi Zhang: Westlake University
Jingyi Shen: Westlake University
Yuefeng Yin: Monash University
Bin Shen: Zhejiang University
Dayong Tan: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Qian Li: Liaocheng University
Yonggang Wang: Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR)
Nikhil V. Medhekar: Monash University
Jie Wu: Westlake University
Huiqiu Yuan: Zhejiang University
Yanchun Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Michael S. Fuhrer: Monash University
Changxi Zheng: Westlake University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract The presence of the van der Waals gap in layered materials creates a wealth of intriguing phenomena different to their counterparts in conventional materials. For example, pressurization can generate a large anisotropic lattice shrinkage along the stacking orientation and/or a significant interlayer sliding, and many of the exotic pressure-dependent properties derive from these mechanisms. Here we report a giant piezoresistivity in pressurized β′-In2Se3. Upon compression, a six-orders-of-magnitude drop of electrical resistivity is obtained below 1.2 GPa in β′-In2Se3 flakes, yielding a giant piezoresistive gauge πp of −5.33 GPa−1. Simultaneously, the sample undergoes a semiconductor-to-semimetal transition without a structural phase transition. Surprisingly, linear dichroism study and theoretical first principles modelling show that these phenomena arise not due to shrinkage or sliding at the van der Waals gap, but rather are dominated by the layer-dependent atomic motions inside the quintuple layer, mainly from the shifting of middle Se atoms to their high-symmetric location. The atomic motions link to both the band structure modulation and the in-plane ferroelectric dipoles. Our work not only provides a prominent piezoresistive material but also points out the importance of intralayer atomic motions beyond van der Waals gap.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37239-9 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-37239-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37239-9

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().