Two-Dimensional Ferroelectric Topological Insulators in Bilayer Heterostructures

The coexistence of ferroelectric and topological orders in two-dimensional (2D) atomic crystals allows non-volatile and switchable quantum spin Hall states. Here we offer a general design principle for 2D bilayer heterostructures that can host ferroelectricity and nontrivial band topology simultaneously using only topologically trivial building blocks. The built-in electric field arising from the out-of-plane polarization across the heterostrucuture enables a robust control of the band gap size and band inversion, which can be utilized to manipulate topological phase transition. Using first-principles calculations, we demonstrate a series of bilayer heterostructures are 2D ferroelectric topological insulators (2DFETIs). We propose a few 2DFETI-based quantum electronics including domain-wall quantum circuits, bias-free optospintronics, and topological memristor.