Yan Yan, Liang Xiongyi, Wang Liqiang, Zhang Yuxuan, Zhou Jiaming, Wang Weijun, Zhang Zhibo, Zhou Yu, Firdous Irum, Lai Zhengxun, Wang Wei, Xie Pengshan, Xiong Yuecheng, Daoud Walid A, Fan Zhiyong, Shin Dong-Myeong, Yang Yong, Lu Yang, Zeng Xiao Cheng, Meng You, Ho Johnny C
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR 999077, P.R. China.
Shenzhen Research Institute, City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518057, China.
Sci Adv. 2025 Aug;11(31):eadu1716. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adu1716. Epub 2025 Aug 1.
Beyond conventional ferroelectric compounds, the realization of single-element ferroelectricity expands the scope of ferroelectric materials and diversifies polarization mechanisms. However, strategies for manipulating ferroelectric dipoles in elemental ferroelectrics remain underexplored, limiting their broader applications. Here, we introduce a universal flexoelectric manipulation strategy to tune the ferroelectric and piezoelectric polarization of one-dimensional self-strained tellurium (Te) ferroelectrics. A substantial flexoelectric field of 9.55 microcoulombs per square centimeter was observed in self-strained Te, inducing a polarization rotation of 18°, comparable to the typical 15° rotation in ferroelectric PbTiO compounds. This substantial polarization rotation enhances ferroelectric coercivity by 165% and piezoelectric responses by 75% compared to unstrained Te. Moreover, the flexoelectric manipulation of ferroelectric polarization demonstrated improved energy harvesting performance at the device level, surpassing most existing counterparts. Our findings highlight the crucial role of flexoelectricity-ferroelectricity coupling in developing high-performance single-element electromechanical devices and ferroelectronics.
除了传统的铁电化合物，单元素铁电性的实现扩展了铁电材料的范围，并使极化机制多样化。然而，在元素铁电体中操纵铁电偶极的策略仍未得到充分探索，限制了它们更广泛的应用。在此，我们引入一种通用的挠曲电操纵策略，以调节一维自应变碲（Te）铁电体的铁电和压电极化。在自应变碲中观察到每平方厘米9.55微库仑的显著挠曲电场，诱导了18°的极化旋转，与铁电PbTiO化合物中典型的15°旋转相当。与未应变的碲相比，这种显著的极化旋转使铁电矫顽力提高了165%，压电响应提高了75%。此外, 铁电极化的挠曲电操纵在器件层面展示了改进的能量收集性能，超过了大多数现有的同类器件。我们的研究结果突出了挠曲电-铁电耦合在开发高性能单元素机电设备和铁电子学中的关键作用。
