Ferroelectric instability of two-dimensional crystals

Abstract

The macroscopic dielectric permittivity of dielectric crystals is related to the microscopic atomic polarizability of constituent atoms by the known Clausius-Mossotti relation obtained in the middle of 19th century. We derive a similar relation for recently discovered two-dimensional crystals (mono- and bilayer graphene, boron nitride, etc) and show that, in contrast to three-dimensional materials, much stronger electron-electron interaction in two dimensions leads to a spontaneous electric polarization of the ground state of two-dimensional crystals. The predicted ferroelectric transition may have interesting applications in electrodynamics and optics.

3 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
• The electronic properties of graphene
• Two-Dimensional Gas of Massless Dirac Fermions in Graphene
• Experimental Observation of Quantum Hall Effect and Berry's Phase in Graphene
• Two Dimensional Atomic Crystals

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Equations of macroscopic electrodynamics for two-dimensional crystals
• Two-dimensional phonon polaritons in multilayers of hexagonal boron nitride from a macroscopic phonon model
• Effect of the local field and dipole-dipole interaction on the spontaneous ordering of dipole moments in bismuth monolayers with an orthorhombic structure