• Accepted Paper

Orbital weight variation as an effective electronic descriptor linking tribology and ferroelectric switching

Kun Liu, Xingju Zhao, Panshuo Wang, Binyang Shao, Zhenyu Zhang, Xiaoyan Ren, and Shunfang Li

Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 12 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/sg8h-35vn

Abstract

Unraveling the microscopic mechanisms governing the coupling between interfacial friction and sliding ferroelectricity is pivotal for advancing ultra-low-friction tribology and high-speed nonvolatile memory technologies. Here, we introduce ΔW, defined as the variation in orbital weight within a physically motivated energy window (~0.1 eV) for the uppermost occupied states bounded by the Debye energy scale, as an effective electronic descriptor that bridges interfacial friction and ferroelectric polarization across two-dimensional van der Waals multilayers, atomically thin films, and three-dimensional bulk ferroelectrics. ΔW is intrinsically correlated with the spin-polarized electronic structure near the Fermi level, and is intimately linked to both phonon-mediated energy dissipation and ferroelectric soft-mode dynamics. We demonstrate that the minimum-energy friction pathway coincides exactly with the ferroelectric switching trajectory. Along this pathway, sliding friction (f), ferroelectric polarization (P), and ΔW evolve synchronously, giving rise to robust linear scaling relationships: f ∝ ΔW and P ∝ ΔW. This scaling behavior persists regardless of orbital character, external pressure, finite temperature, or magnetic ordering effects. Our findings establish ΔW as a tunable quantum target for the concurrent optimization of ultralow friction and superior ferroelectric performance, paving the way for the rational design of energy-efficient interfacial systems and next-generation nanodevices.

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