» Articles » PMID: 38653984

Dualistic Insulator States in 1T-TaS Crystals

Abstract

While the monolayer sheet is well-established as a Mott-insulator with a finite energy gap, the insulating nature of bulk 1T-TaS crystals remains ambiguous due to their varying dimensionalities and alterable interlayer coupling. In this study, we present a unique approach to unlock the intertwined two-dimensional Mott-insulator and three-dimensional band-insulator states in bulk 1T-TaS crystals by structuring a laddering stack along the out-of-plane direction. Through modulating the interlayer coupling, the insulating nature can be switched between band-insulator and Mott-insulator mechanisms. Our findings demonstrate the duality of insulating nature in 1T-TaS crystals. By manipulating the translational degree of freedom in layered crystals, our discovery presents a promising strategy for exploring fascinating physics, independent of their dimensionality, thereby offering a "three-dimensional" control for the era of slidetronics.

Citing Articles

Janus Monolayer of 1T-TaSSe: A Computational Study.

Szalowski K Materials (Basel). 2024; 17(18).

PMID: 39336331 PMC: 11433230. DOI: 10.3390/ma17184591.

References
1.
Law K, Lee P . 1T-TaS as a quantum spin liquid. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017; 114(27):6996-7000. PMC: 5502651. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1706769114. View

2.
Lee S, Goh J, Cho D . Origin of the Insulating Phase and First-Order Metal-Insulator Transition in 1T-TaS_{2}. Phys Rev Lett. 2019; 122(10):106404. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.106404. View

3.
Eda G, Fujita T, Yamaguchi H, Voiry D, Chen M, Chhowalla M . Coherent atomic and electronic heterostructures of single-layer MoS2. ACS Nano. 2012; 6(8):7311-7. DOI: 10.1021/nn302422x. View

4.
Nie L, Sun K, Ma W, Song D, Zheng L, Liang Z . Charge-density-wave-driven electronic nematicity in a kagome superconductor. Nature. 2022; 604(7904):59-64. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04493-8. View

5.
Vizner Stern M, Waschitz Y, Cao W, Nevo I, Watanabe K, Taniguchi T . Interfacial ferroelectricity by van der Waals sliding. Science. 2021; . DOI: 10.1126/science.abe8177. View