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Nonlinear Phononic Slidetronics

Pooja Rani* and Dominik M. Juraschek†

  • *Contact author: p.rani@tue.nl
  • †Contact author: dominik.juraschek@unifr.ch
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 196901 – Published 2 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/5kfl-11m1

Abstract

Layered van der Waals ferroelectrics are conventionally switched by sliding the different layers between stacking orders with opposing electric polarizations. Ultrashort laser pulses have been proposed to launch shear modes and induce switching, with often unfeasible large pulse energies, however. Here, we demonstrate switching of ferroelectricity in bilayer hexagonal boron nitride through nonlinearly excited phonons. We show that the efficiencies of conventional coherent phonon excitation mechanisms, including infrared absorption and Raman scattering techniques, are too low to overcome the energy barrier separating the two ferroelectric states. We demonstrate instead that excitation of high-frequency intralayer modes leads to a tilting of the interlayer potential-energy landscape that enables changing the stacking order. Our results provide an avenue toward efficient phononic slidetronics, enabling ultrafast control of the stacking order in van der Waals materials.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 196901– Published 2 November, 2026
  • Received 21 November 2025
  • Revised 23 July 2026
  • Accepted 23 September 2026
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