Observation of room-temperature polar skyrmions

Journal Article

Das, S., Y.L. Tang, Z. Hong, M.A.P. Gonçalves, M.R. McCarter, C. Klewe, K.X. Nguyen, F. Gómez-Ortiz, P. Shafer, E. Arenholz, V.A. Stoica, S.-L. Hsu, B. Wang, C. Ophus, J.F. Liu, C.T. Nelson, S. Saremi, B. Prasad, A.B. Mei, D.G. Schlom, J. Íñiguez, P. García-Fernández, D.A. Muller, L.Q. Chen, J. Junquera, L.W. Martin, Ramamoorthy Ramesh

10.1038/s41586-019-1092-8

Complex topological configurations are fertile ground for exploring emergent phenomena and exotic phases in condensed-matter physics. For example, the recent discovery of polarization vortices and their associated complex-phase coexistence and response under applied electric fields in superlattices of (PbTiO3)n/(SrTiO3)n suggests the presence of a complex, multi-dimensional system capable of interesting physical responses, such as chirality, negative capacitance and large piezo-electric responses1–3. Here, by varying epitaxial constraints, we discover room-temperature polar-skyrmion bubbles in a lead titanate layer confined by strontium titanate layers, which are imaged by atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy. Phase-field modelling and second-principles calculations reveal that the polar-skyrmion bubbles have a skyrmion number of +1, and resonant soft-X-ray diffraction experiments show circular dichroism, confirming chirality. Such nanometre-scale polar-skyrmion bubbles are the electric analogues of magnetic skyrmions, and could contribute to the advancement of ferroelectrics towards functionalities incorporating emergent chirality and electrically controllable negative capacitance. © 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

Nature

568

2019

00280836

Ramesh Lab