CAREER: Non-volatile memory devices based on sliding ferroelectricity

该项目将提供一系列包容性研究和教育活动，如记忆研究机会、外展计划和科学讲座，面向从高中生和教师到本科生的不同群体。下一代内存技术在解决物联网、智能制造和人工智能医疗等现代计算和数据驱动应用程序不断增长的数据容量和能源需求方面具有重要意义。随着对更高的数据密度、更低的功耗、更快的访问时间的需求，传统的存储解决方案正在达到它们的极限。本项目旨在开发一种新型的存储器件--滑动式铁电隧道结。它旨在利用原子薄层状材料中的非易失性滑动铁电的独特优势，包括超低能耗、快速切换速度和超紧凑的占地面积。由此产生的存储设备可以增强人工智能、大数据分析和边缘计算中的新兴技术所必需的性能能力。在范德华材料中发现了一种新的铁电性，即滑动铁电性。原子层的相对排列会破坏镜面对称性和反转对称性，导致垂直自发极化。两个相反极化之间的铁电转换是通过相邻原子层之间的相对横向滑动来完成的，具有极低的转换能垒和超快的转换时间。再加上范德华材料表面原子清洁的优点，可以构建坚固的铁电隧道结，这种新型的滑动铁电材料有望在下一代存储、逻辑和计算技术中发挥作用。这份职业计划旨在了解滑动铁电顺序及其在铁电隧道结中的作用，目标是实现具有超快操作速度、超低能耗和多态功能的存储器件。该项目包括全面的研究，包括对响应各种电气和机械边界条件的滑动铁电的基本了解、铁电隧道结器件原型、基准和度量优化以及多态器件开发。在这个项目中开发的新技术将被整合到本科和研究生教育中，以培养未来几代人对STEM职业的热情。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will deliver a range of inclusive research and educational activities, such as memory research opportunities, outreach programs, and scientific lectures, targeting diverse groups from high school students and teachers to undergraduates. Next-generation memory technology is significant in addressing the escalating data capacity and energy demands of modern computing and data-driven applications such as the Internet of Things, smart manufacturing, and AI-empowered medical care. With the need for higher data densities, lower power consumption, faster access times, traditional memory solutions are reaching their limits. This project seeks to develop a new type of memory device—sliding ferroelectric tunnel junctions. It aims to harness the unique advantages of nonvolatile sliding ferroelectricity in atomically thin layered materials, which includes ultralow energy consumption, fast switching speed and ultracompact footprint. The resulting memory devices can enhance the performance capabilities essential for emergent technologies in artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and edge computing. A new type of ferroelectricity has been discovered in van der Waals materials, namely sliding ferroelectricity. The relative arrangement of atomic layers can break the mirror symmetry and inversion symmetry, leading to vertical spontaneous polarization. The ferroelectric switching between two opposite polarization is accomplished by relative lateral sliding between adjacent atomic layers with remarkably ultralow switching energy barriers and ultrafast switching time. Together with the advantage of the atomically clean surface of van der Waals materials for constructing robust ferroelectric tunneling junctions, such novel sliding ferroelectricity is promising for next-generation memory, logic and computational technologies. This CAREER proposal seeks to understand sliding ferroelectric orders, their role in ferroelectric tunneling junctions with an objective to realize memory devices with ultrafast operation speed, ultralow energy consumption and multistate functionalities. The project encompasses comprehensive studies including fundamental understanding of sliding ferroelectricity in response to various electrical and mechanical boundary conditions, ferroelectric tunneling junction device prototyping, benchmark, and metric optimization, and multistate device development. New techniques developed in this project will be integrated into undergraduate and graduate education to foster enthusiasm for STEM careers among the future generation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.