Design strategy for ferroelectric-based polar metals with dimensionality-tunable electronic states

Since LiOsO_3 was discovered, obtaining easy-accessible polar metals for research and applications has been challenging. In this paper, we present a multilayer design strategy, which is configured as ferroelectric layer/carrier reservoir layer/isolation layer/substrate, for obtaining polar metals by electrostatically doping a strained ferroelectric material in a more effective way. In the proposed configuration, both 1 unit-cell thick BaTiO_3 and PbTiO_3 exhibited considerable Ti off-centering with various strains,which should extend the applicability of ferroelectric-based polar metals in ultra-thin devices. Moreover, engineered by the compressive strain and the BaTiO_3 thickness, the design strategy effectively achieved polar metallicity and dimensionalitytunable electronic states associated with the modulation of highly anisotropic properties such as electrical and electronic thermal conductivity, which may be helpful for designing ultra-thin, ultrafast, and low-power switch devices.