- Susarla, Sandhya;
- Tsafack, Thierry;
- Owuor, Peter Samora;
- Puthirath, Anand B;
- Hachtel, Jordan A;
- Babu, Ganguli;
- Apte, Amey;
- Jawdat, BenMaan I;
- Hilario, Martin S;
- Lerma, Albert;
- Calderon, Hector A;
- Robles Hernandez, Francisco C;
- Tam, David W;
- Li, Tong;
- Lupini, Andrew R;
- Idrobo, Juan Carlos;
- Lou, Jun;
- Wei, Bingqing;
- Dai, Pengcheng;
- Tiwary, Chandra Sekhar;
- Ajayan, Pulickel M
Upcoming advancements in flexible technology require mechanically compliant dielectric materials. Current dielectrics have either high dielectric constant, K (e.g., metal oxides) or good flexibility (e.g., polymers). Here, we achieve a golden mean of these properties and obtain a lightweight, viscoelastic, high-K dielectric material by combining two nonpolar, brittle constituents, namely, sulfur (S) and selenium (Se). This S-Se alloy retains polymer-like mechanical flexibility along with a dielectric strength (40 kV/mm) and a high dielectric constant (K = 74 at 1 MHz) similar to those of established metal oxides. Our theoretical model suggests that the principal reason is the strong dipole moment generated due to the unique structural orientation between S and Se atoms. The S-Se alloys can bridge the chasm between mechanically soft and high-K dielectric materials toward several flexible device applications.