Stacking-Induced Ferroelectricity in Tetralayer Graphene

Pristine mono- or few-layer graphene lacks a permanent dipole due to its centrosymmetric lattice, making ferroelectricity unlikely. However, ABCB tetralayer, the simplest mixed-stacked graphene, breaks both inversion and mirror symmetry, thus exhibiting intrinsic out-of-plane polarization arising from asymmetric charge carrier distribution across its layers. We report robust ferroelectric behavior in ABCB tetralayer graphene encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride, in the moiré-less limit. The device exhibits pronounced hysteresis in resistance under both top and bottom gate modulation, with the effect persisting up to room temperature. This hysteresis originates from reversible layer-polarized charge reordering, driven by gate-induced transitions between ABCB and BCBA stacking configurations. Our findings establish stacking-order-induced symmetry breaking as a fundamental route to ferroelectricity and open pathways for nonvolatile memory applications.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nano Letters
Published
2026-04-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6c00118
Primary Topic
Graphene research and applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Stacking-Induced Ferroelectricity in Tetralayer Graphene

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Stacking-Induced Ferroelectricity in Tetralayer Graphene

Vladimir I. Fal’ko, Sergey Slizovskiy, Yashar Mayamei, Pablo Díaz Núñez, Nicholas D. Kay, Artem Mishchenko, Patrick Johansen Sarsfield, Ziwei Wang, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Kostya S. Novoselov, Shuigang Xu, Jun Yin
article en

Abstract

Pristine mono- or few-layer graphene lacks a permanent dipole due to its centrosymmetric lattice, making ferroelectricity unlikely. However, ABCB tetralayer, the simplest mixed-stacked graphene, breaks both inversion and mirror symmetry, thus exhibiting intrinsic out-of-plane polarization arising from asymmetric charge carrier distribution across its layers. We report robust ferroelectric behavior in ABCB tetralayer graphene encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride, in the moiré-less limit. The device exhibits pronounced hysteresis in resistance under both top and bottom gate modulation, with the effect persisting up to room temperature. This hysteresis originates from reversible layer-polarized charge reordering, driven by gate-induced transitions between ABCB and BCBA stacking configurations. Our findings establish stacking-order-induced symmetry breaking as a fundamental route to ferroelectricity and open pathways for nonvolatile memory applications.

Nano LettersVol. 26(14)
National University of Singapore (SG), National Institute for Materials Science (JP), University of Manchester (GB), Henry Royce Institute (GB), Westlake University (CN), Ministry of Education (ME), Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (CN)
Royal Society, University of Manchester, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, H2020 European Research Council
Openalex Percentile: Top 29%
Graphene research and applications
DOISourceOpenAlex
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