Ferroelectric switching of interfacial dipoles in α-RuCl3/graphene heterostructure
We demonstrate electrically switchable, non-volatile dipoles in graphene/thin hBN/α-RuCl<sub>3</sub> heterostructures, stabilized purely by interfacial charge transfer across an atomically thin dielectric barrier. This mechanism requires no sliding or twisting to explicitly break inversion symmetry and produces robust ferroelectric-like hysteresis loops that emerge prominently near 30 K. Systematic measurements under strong in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic fields reveal negligible effects on the hysteresis characteristics, confirming that the primary mechanism driving the dipole switching is electrostatic. Our findings establish a distinct and robust route to electrically tunable ferroelectric phenomena in van der Waals heterostructures, opening opportunities to explore the interplay between interfacial charge transfer and temperature-tuned barrier crossing of dipole states at the atomic scale.
Authors
- Jieun Yun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4241-4274)
- Takashi Taniguchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0017-7669)
- Kenji Watanabe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3701-8119)
- S.B. Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0333-7181)
- Kyung‐Hwan Jin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5116-9987)
- Joseph Falson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3183-9864)
- Gil Young Cho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4957-3013)
- Youngwook Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4067-6254)
- Jun Sung Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1413-7265)
Institutions
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Pohang University of Science and Technology (KR)
- Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KR)
- Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (KR)
- National Institute for Materials Science (JP)
- Institute for Basic Science (KR)
- Jeonbuk National University (KR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-01-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-68072-x
- Primary Topic
- Graphene research and applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Aspen Center for Physics
- National Research Foundation
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Pohang University of Science and Technology
- National Research Foundation of Korea
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology
- Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea
- Samsung Science and Technology Foundation
- Samsung
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology