TY - JOUR
KW - Transmission electron microscopy
KW - Room temperature
KW - Polarization
KW - Magnetism
KW - Electric field
KW - Priority journal
KW - Titanium
KW - Chirality
KW - Circular dichroism
KW - Electric activity
KW - Electric capacitance
KW - Electromagnetism
KW - Letter
KW - Scanning transmission electron microscopy
KW - X-ray Diffraction
AU - S Das
AU - Y.L Tang
AU - Z Hong
AU - M.A.P Gonçalves
AU - M.R McCarter
AU - C Klewe
AU - K.X Nguyen
AU - F Gómez-Ortiz
AU - P Shafer
AU - E Arenholz
AU - V.A Stoica
AU - S.-L Hsu
AU - B Wang
AU - C Ophus
AU - J.F Liu
AU - C.T Nelson
AU - S Saremi
AU - B Prasad
AU - A.B Mei
AU - D.G Schlom
AU - J Íñiguez
AU - P García-Fernández
AU - D.A Muller
AU - L.Q Chen
AU - J Junquera
AU - L.W Martin
AU - Ramamoorthy Ramesh
AB - 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.
BT - Nature
DO - 10.1038/s41586-019-1092-8
LA - eng
M1 - 7752
N1 - cited By 31
N2 - 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.
PB - Nature Publishing Group
PY - 2019
SP - 368
EP - 372
T2 - Nature
TI - Observation of room-temperature polar skyrmions
VL - 568
SN - 00280836
ER -