Ferroelectricity in graphene nanoribbon devices enabled by collective water molecule dynamics
Water is omnipresent in nanoscale systems, yet its collective dynamics and impact on emerging electronics remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate the role of water molecule dynamics in the ferroelectric response of graphene nanoribbon devices. Our findings demonstrate that the collective dynamics of water molecules stabilize the ferroelectric effect. We find that a minimum bi-layer thickness is required for the temperature stability of the ferroelectric effect. In contrast, mono-layer ribbons show a 70% shrinkage of the hysteresis window between 120 and 400 K. Using a combination of electrical transport measurements and molecular dynamics simulations, we conclude that water molecules bridging between graphene nanoribbon layers stabilize the formation of water clusters via intermolecular Coulomb interactions, driving a robust ferroelectric behavior and remnant polarization observed at the device level. This work lays the foundations for exploiting water dynamics in next-generation ferroelectric heterostructures, with direct implications for neuromorphic computing and memory devices.
Authors
- Zehao Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3276-7516)
- Christian Teichert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0796-2355)
- Aleksandar Matković (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8072-6220)
- Muhammad Zubair Khan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1817-2003)
- Amy Carl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3601-1636)
- Muhammad Awais Aslam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1178-0722)
- Alois Lugstein (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5693-4775)
- Takashi Taniguchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1467-3105)
- Kenji Watanabe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3701-8119)
- Gennadiy Murastov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7681-3118)
- Igor Stanković (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5756-7196)
- Raúl D. Rodriguez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4016-1469)
- Roman Gorbachev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3604-5617)
Institutions
- TU Wien (AT)
- Montanuniversität Leoben (AT)
- National Research Tomsk State University (RU)
- National Institute for Materials Science (JP)
- Tomsk Polytechnic University (RU)
- Henry Royce Institute (GB)
- University of Belgrade (RS)
- Institute of Physics Belgrade (RS)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-12-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65922-6
- Primary Topic
- Ferroelectric and Negative Capacitance Devices
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Institute of Physics Belgrade
- European Commission
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Austrian Science Fund
- Ministarstvo Prosvete, Nauke i Tehnološkog Razvoja
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science