Evidence of the ferroelectric polarization in charge transport through WTe2 Weyl semimetal surface
Abstract
We investigate electron transport along the surface of WTe2 three-dimensional single crystals, which are characterized by coexistence of Weyl semimetal conductivity and ferroelectricity at room temperature. We find that non-linear behavior of dV/dI(I) WTe2 differential resistance is accompanied by slow relaxation process, which appears as the dV/dI(I) dependence on the sign of the current change. This observation is confirmed by direct investigation of time-dependent relaxation curves. While strongly non-linear differential resistance should be expected for the zero-gap WTe2, the slow relaxation in transport is very unusual for well-conducting semimetals at room temperature. We establish, that non-monotonous dependence of the amplitude of the effect on driving current dV/dI(I) well corresponds to the known Sawyer-Tower's ferroelectric hysteresis loop. This conclusion is also confirmed by gate voltage dependencies, so our results can be understood as a direct demonstration of WTe2 ferroelectric polarization in charge transport experiment.
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