Exceptional Ductility in N‐Type Bi 2 Te 3 Enabled by Atomic‐Scale Coulomb Tailoring of the Van Der Waals Gap
Chuan‐Dong Zhou, Qiang Zhang, Rui‐Jie Li, Jian‐Feng Cai, Zong‐Wei Zhang, Xiaojian Tan, Zi‐Yuan Wang, Zhen‐Hua Ge, Guo‐Qiang Liu, Bo Liang, Jun JiangABSTRACT
Inorganic semiconductors underpin modern electronics but suffer from their intrinsic brittleness that constrains functional applications. Here, we demonstrate a plasticity engineering strategy for layered semiconductor Bismuth Telluride via atomic‐scale Coulomb tailoring. By establishing long‐range interlayer Coulomb attraction through strategic doping in the van der Waals gap, the brittle Bi 2 Te 3 is successfully transformed into highly deformable semiconductors. Importantly, this strategy preserves the in‐plane electrical transport, which achieves >90% room‐temperature compressive strain while retaining an exceptional peak zT of 1.2 at 350 K. The decoupled nature of interlayer Coulomb interaction and in‐plane covalent bonding enables concurrent plasticity enhancement and electronic property conservation. This work establishes a general design principle, leveraging the decoupling between interlayer and in‐plane interactions, for developing deformable semiconductors without compromising their electronic properties.