Unconventional (anti)ferroelectricity in van der Waals group-IV monochalcogenides

Fengrui Sui, Yilun Yu, Ju Chen, Ruijuan Qi (), Rui Ge, Yufan Zheng, Beituo Liu, Rong Jin, Shijing Gong (), Fangyu Yue () and Junhao Chu
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Fengrui Sui: East China Normal University
Yilun Yu: East China Normal University
Ju Chen: East China Normal University
Ruijuan Qi: East China Normal University
Rui Ge: East China Normal University
Yufan Zheng: East China Normal University
Beituo Liu: East China Normal University
Rong Jin: East China Normal University
Shijing Gong: East China Normal University
Fangyu Yue: East China Normal University
Junhao Chu: East China Normal University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Fundamentally, ferroelectrics must belong to a noncentrosymmetric space group, limiting the exploration of more new ferroelectric materials. We circumvent this limitation by triggering structure distortion and inducing ferroelectricity in centrosymmetric van der Waals group-IV monochalcogenide GeSe semiconductor that features unexpected intrinsic out-of-plane antiferroelectricity. Double-type and single-type hysteresis loops from electric measurements, bonding distortion observed in in-situ atomic imaging, and perpendicular polarization uncovered by first-principles calculations, confirm the intrinsic out-of-plane antiferroelectricity and the antiferroelectric–ferroelectric transition induced by the vertical external electric-field. The hidden out-of-plane antiferroelectricity and field induced ferroelectric polarization in spatial-inversion symmetric GeSe makes it a new member of van der Waals layered semiconductors with both in-plane and out-of-plane ferroelectricity, and possibly, can be extended to all group-IV monochalcogenides and other centrosymmetric van der Waals layered materials.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57138-5

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