Unusual topological polar texture in moiré ferroelectrics

Yuhao Li, Yuanhao Wei, Ruiping Guo, Yifei Wang, Hanhao Zhang, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Yan Shi, Yi Shi (), Chong Wang () and Zaiyao Fei ()
Additional contact information
Yuhao Li: Nanjing University
Yuanhao Wei: Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Ruiping Guo: Tsinghua University
Yifei Wang: Tsinghua University
Hanhao Zhang: Nanjing University
Takashi Taniguchi: National Institute for Materials Science
Kenji Watanabe: National Institute for Materials Science
Yan Shi: Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Yi Shi: Nanjing University
Chong Wang: Tsinghua University
Zaiyao Fei: Nanjing University

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

Abstract: Abstract Topological polar textures in ferroelectrics have attracted significant interest for their potential applications in energy-efficient and high-density data storage and processing. Among these, polar merons and antimerons are predicted in strained and twisted bilayers of inversion symmetry broken systems. However, experimental observation of these polar textures within twisted two-dimensional van der Waals materials remains elusive. Here, we utilize vector piezoresponse force microscopy to reconstruct the polarization fields in R-type marginally twisted hexagonal boron nitride. We observe alternating out-of-plane polarizations at domain regions and in-plane vortex-like polarization patterns along domain walls, indicative of a network of polar merons and antimerons. Notably, the out-of-plane polarization exhibits three polarity reversals across a domain wall. Similar polar textures are identified in marginally twisted WSe2 and MoSe2 homobilayers. Our theoretical simulations attribute these unusual polarization reversals near the domain walls to the competition between moiré ferroelectricity and piezoelectricity. These results provide the experimental evidence of complex polar textures in moiré ferroelectrics, which may offer additional insights into the electronic band topology in twisted transition metal dichalcogenides.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60647-y 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:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-60647-y

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60647-y

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 ().