Coexistence of reversible polar distortions and metallicity leading to a ferroelectric metal, first suggested by Anderson and Blount in 1965, has so far remained elusive. Electrically switchable intrinsic electric polarization, together with the direct observation of ferroelectric domains, has not yet been realized in a bulk crystalline metal, although incomplete screening by mobile conduction charges should, in principle, be possible. Here, we provide evidence that native metallicity and ferroelectricity coexist in bulk crystalline van der Waals WTe2 by means of electrical transport, nanoscale piezoresponse measurements, and first-principles calculations. We show that, despite being a Weyl semimetal, WTe2 has switchable spontaneous polarization and a natural ferroelectric domain structure at room temperature. This new class of materials has tantalizing potential for functional nanoelectronics applications.

/pdf/a-room-temperature-ferroelectric-semimetal-2qyej4p607.pdf

A room-temperature ferroelectric semimetal

A key challenge in the development of two-dimensional (2D) devices is the fabrication of metal–semiconductor junctions with minimal contact resistance and depinned energy levels. An ideal solution for practical applications is to make contacts between 2D van der Waals semiconductors and 2D van der Waals metals. Here we report the wafer-scale production of patterned layers of metallic transition metal ditellurides on different substrates. Our tungsten ditelluride and molybdenum ditelluride layers, which are grown using a tellurization process applied to a precursor transition metal layer, have an electronic performance comparable to that of mechanically exfoliated flakes and can be combined with the 2D semiconductor molybdenum disulfide. The resulting metal–semiconductor junctions are free from significant disorder effects and Fermi-level pinning, and are used to create monolayer molybdenum disulfide field-effect transistors. The Schottky barrier heights of the devices also largely follow the trend of the Schottky–Mott limit. Two-dimensional metallic WTe2 and MoTe2 layers can be combined with a semiconducting MoS2 monolayer to create metal–semiconductor junctions that are free from substantial disorder effects and Fermi-level pinning.

Wafer-scale production of patterned transition metal ditelluride layers for two-dimensional metal–semiconductor contacts at the Schottky–Mott limit

A hyperbolic plasmonic surface supports highly directional propagating polaritons with extremely large density of states. Such plasmon polaritons have been realized in artificially structured metasurfaces. However, the upper bound of the achievable plasmon wave vector is limited by the structure size, which calls for a natural hyperbolic surface without any structuring. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a natural hyperbolic plasmonic surface based on thin films of WTe2 in the light wavelength range of 16 to 23 microns by far infrared absorption spectroscopy. The topological transition from the elliptic to the hyperbolic regime is further manifested by mapping the isofrequency contours of the plasmon. Moreover, the anisotropy character and plasmon frequency exhibit prominent temperature dependence. Our study demonstrates the first natural platform to host 2D hyperbolic plasmons, which opens exotic avenues for the manipulation of plasmon propagation, light-matter interaction and light emission in planar photonics.

/pdf/van-der-waals-thin-films-of-wte-2-for-natural-hyperbolic-2e9rb5fgrw.pdf

Van der Waals thin films of WTe 2 for natural hyperbolic plasmonic surfaces

Two-dimensional crystals of semi-metallic van der Waals materials hold much potential for the realization of novel phases, as exemplified by the recent discoveries of a polar metal in few-layer 1T′-WTe2 and of a quantum spin Hall state in monolayers of the same material. Understanding these phases is particularly challenging because little is known from experiments about the momentum space electronic structure of ultrathin crystals. Here, we report direct electronic structure measurements of exfoliated mono-, bi-, and few-layer 1T′-WTe2 by laser-based microfocus angle-resolved photoemission. This is achieved by encapsulating with monolayer graphene a flake of WTe2 comprising regions of different thickness. Our data support the recent identification of a quantum spin Hall state in monolayer 1T′-WTe2 and reveal strong signatures of the broken inversion symmetry in the bilayer. We finally discuss the sensitivity of encapsulated samples to contaminants following exposure to ambient atmosphere.

/pdf/microfocus-laser-angle-resolved-photoemission-on-13d8is79yr.pdf

Microfocus Laser-Angle-Resolved Photoemission on Encapsulated Mono-, Bi-, and Few-Layer 1T'-WTe2.

Using the MoS2 -WTe2 heterostructure as a model system combined with electrochemical microreactors and density function theory calculations, it is shown that heterostructured contacts enhance the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity of monolayer MoS2 . Two possible mechanisms are suggested to explain this enhancement: efficient charge injection through large-area heterojunctions between MoS2 and WTe2 and effective screening of mirror charges due to the semimetallic nature of WTe2 . The dielectric screening effect is proven minor, probed by measuring the HER activity of monolayer MoS2 on various support substrates with dielectric constants ranging from 4 to 300. Thus, the enhanced HER is attributed to the increased charge injection into MoS2 through large-area heterojunctions. Based on this understanding, a MoS2 /WTe2 hybrid catalyst is fabricated with an HER overpotential of -140 mV at 10 mA cm-2 , a Tafel slope of 40 mV dec-1 , and long stability. These results demonstrate the importance of interfacial design in transition metal dichalcogenide HER catalysts. The microreactor platform presents an unambiguous approach to probe interfacial effects in various electrocatalytic reactions.

https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10131182

Unveiling the Interfacial Effects for Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution Reaction on MoS 2 /WTe 2 Hybrid Structures.

Recent renewed interest in layered transition metal dichalcogenides stems from the exotic electronic phases predicted and observed in the single- and few-layer limit. Realizing these electronic phases requires preserving the desired transport properties down to a monolayer, which is challenging. Here, using semimetallic $WTe_2$ that exhibits large magnetoresistance, we show that surface oxidation and Fermi level pinning degrade the transport properties of thin $WTe_2$ flakes significantly. With decreasing $WTe_2$ flake thickness, we observe a dramatic suppression of the large magnetoresistance. This is explained by fitting a two-band model to the transport data, which shows that mobility of the electron and hole carriers decreases significantly for thin flakes. The microscopic origin of this mobility decrease is attributed to a ~ 2 nm-thick amorphous surface oxide layer that introduces disorder. The oxide layer also shifts the Fermi level by ~ 300 meV at the $WTe_2$ surface. However, band bending due to this Fermi level shift is not the dominant cause for the suppression of magnetoresistance as the electron and hole carrier densities are balanced down to ~ 13 nm based on the two-band model. Our study highlights the critical need to investigate often unanticipated and sometimes unavoidable extrinsic surface effects on the transport properties of layered dichalcogenides and other 2D materials.

Suppression of magnetoresistance in thin $WTe_2$ flakes by surface oxidation

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Suppression of magnetoresistance in thin $WTe_2$ flakes by surface oxidation