Interlayer reconstruction phase transition in van der Waals materials

Junwei Zhang; Laiyuan Wang; Jingtao Lü; Zhe Wang; Huan Wu; Guilin Zhu; Nan Wang; Fei Xue; Xue Zeng; Liu Zhu; Yang Hu; Xia Deng; Chaoshuai Guan; Chen Yang; Zhaoyang Lin; Peiqi Wang; Boxuan Zhou; Jing Lü; Wenguang Zhu; Xixiang Zhang; Yu Huang; Wei Huang; Yong Peng; Xiangfeng Duan

doi:10.1038/s41563-024-02082-w

Interlayer reconstruction phase transition in van der Waals materials

Nat Mater. 2025 Jan 24. doi: 10.1038/s41563-024-02082-w. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Junwei Zhang^#¹, Laiyuan Wang^#², Jingtao Lü^#³, Zhe Wang^#⁴, Huan Wu^#⁵, Guilin Zhu³, Nan Wang¹, Fei Xue⁶, Xue Zeng⁷, Liu Zhu¹, Yang Hu¹, Xia Deng¹, Chaoshuai Guan¹, Chen Yang⁸, Zhaoyang Lin⁹, Peiqi Wang⁹, Boxuan Zhou¹⁰, Jing Lü⁸, Wenguang Zhu⁴, Xixiang Zhang⁶, Yu Huang¹⁰, Wei Huang¹¹, Yong Peng¹², Xiangfeng Duan¹³

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials and Energy, or Electron Microscopy Centre of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
² Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA. [email protected].
³ School of Physics and Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
⁴ Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
⁵ School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁶ Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ School of Mathematics and Physics, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, China.
⁸ Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹¹ School of Flexible Electronics and State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, China.
¹² School of Materials and Energy, or Electron Microscopy Centre of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China. [email protected].
¹³ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 39856414
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-024-02082-w

Abstract

Van der Waals materials display rich structural polymorphs with distinct physical properties. An atomistic understanding of the phase-transition dynamics, propagation pathway and associated evolution of physical properties is essential for capturing their potential in practical technologies. However, direct visualization of the rapid phase-transition process is fundamentally challenging due to the inherent trade-offs among atomic resolution, field of view and imaging frame rate. Here we exploit a controllable current-driven phase transition and utilize in situ scanning transmission electron microscopy to visualize dynamic atomic rearrangements during the 2H-α to 2H-β transition in layered In₂Se₃. We identify a unique intralayer-splitting (unzipping) and interlayer-reconstruction (zipping) pathway, driven by an energy-cascading mechanism through which bond formation across the van der Waals gap facilitates bond cleavage in the covalent layers. We also observe current-direction-dependent asymmetric phase-transition propagation and attribute it to a temperature profile induced by the Peltier effect at the heterophase interface. These findings provide insights that are essential for designing tailored structural phase transitions in advanced technologies.

Abstract

Grants and funding