Supra-Binary Polarization in a Ferroelectric Nanowire

The prediction and observation of supra-binary polarization in a ferroelectric nanowire (FNW) covered with a semicylindrical gate that provides an anisotropic electric field in the FNW are reported. There are gate-voltage-driven transitions between four polarization states in the FNW's cross-section, dubbed vertical-up, vertical-down, radial-in, and radial-out. They are determined by the interplay between the spatial depolarization energy and the free energy induced by an anisotropic external electric field, in clear distinction from the conventional film-based binary ferroelectricity. When the FNW is mounted on a biased graphene nanoribbon (GNR), these transitions induce exotic current–voltage hysteresis in the FNW–GNR transistor. This discovery suggests new operating mechanisms of ferroelectric devices. In particular, it enables intrinsic quaternary-digit information manipulation in parallel to the bit manipulation employed in conventional data storage.