Sliding Ferroelectricity in a Bulk Misfit Layer Compound (PbS)1.11VS2

Twisted heterostructures of two-dimensional crystals can create a moiré landscape, thereby changing the properties of its parent crystals. Here, the alternated stacking of posttransition metal monochalcogenides and transition metal dichalcogenides in misfit layer compound crystals is used as a moiré generator. X-ray diffraction shows the presence of twins with a small twist angle between them. The surface electrical potential from the induced sliding ferroelectricity is seen by using scanning probe microscopy and electron microscopy with domain sizes up to tens of micrometers.