@article{33346, keywords = {transmission electron microscopy, room temperature, Polarization, Magnetism, electric field, priority journal, titanium, chirality, circular dichroism, electric activity, electric capacitance, electromagnetism, Letter, scanning transmission electron microscopy, X ray diffraction}, author = {S Das and Y.L Tang and Z Hong and M.A.P Gonçalves and M.R McCarter and C Klewe and K.X Nguyen and F Gómez-Ortiz and P Shafer and E Arenholz and V.A Stoica and S.-L Hsu and B Wang and C Ophus and J.F Liu and C.T Nelson and S Saremi and B Prasad and A.B Mei and D.G Schlom and J Íñiguez and P García-Fernández and D.A Muller and L.Q Chen and J Junquera and L.W Martin and Ramamoorthy Ramesh}, title = {Observation of room-temperature polar skyrmions}, abstract = {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.}, year = {2019}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {568}, number = {7752}, pages = {368-372}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, issn = {00280836}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-019-1092-8}, note = {cited By 31}, language = {eng}, }