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  1. Thin-film electrostatic engineering is used to uncover a hidden antiferroelectric phase. 
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  2. Abstract

    Tailoring the electrical transport properties of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides can enable the formation of atomically thin circuits. In this work, cyclic hydrogen and oxygen plasma exposures are utilized to introduce defects and oxidize MoS2in a controlled manner. This results in the formation of sub-stochiometric MoO3−x, which transforms the semiconducting behavior to metallic conduction. To demonstrate functionality, single flakes of MoS2were lithographically oxidized using electron beam lithography and subsequent plasma exposures. This enabled the formation of atomically thin inverters from a single flake of MoS2, which represents an advancement toward atomically thin circuitry.

     
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  3. Abstract

    The manipulation of charge and lattice degrees of freedom in atomically precise, low‐dimensional ferroelectric superlattices can lead to exotic polar structures, such as a vortex state. The role of interfaces in the evolution of the vortex state in these superlattices (and the associated electrostatic and elastic boundary conditions they produce) has remained unclear. Here, the toroidal state, arranged in arrays of alternating clockwise/counterclockwise polar vortices, in a confined SrTiO3/PbTiO3/SrTiO3trilayer is investigated. By utilizing a combination of transmission electron microscopy, synchrotron‐based X‐ray diffraction, and phase‐field modeling, the phase transition as a function of layer thickness (number of unit cells) demonstrates how the vortex state emerges from the ferroelectric state by varying the thickness of the confined PbTiO3layer. Intriguingly, the vortex state arises at head‐to‐head domain boundaries in ferroelectrica1/a2twin structures. In turn, by varying the total number of PbTiO3layers (moving from trilayer to superlattices), it is possible to manipulate the long‐range interactions among multiple confined PbTiO3layers to stabilize the vortex state. This work provides a new understanding of how the different energies work together to produce this exciting new state of matter and can contribute to the design of novel states and potential memory applications.

     
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