Creating polar antivortex in PbTiO<sub>3</sub>/SrTiO<sub>3</sub> superlattice.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33824335.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-22356-0 and PMC identifier 8024303.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Nontrivial topological structures offer a rich playground in condensed matters and promise alternative device configurations for post-Moore electronics. While recently a number of polar topologies have been discovered in confined ferroelectric PbTiO<sub>3</sub> within artificially engineered PbTiO<sub>3</sub>/SrTiO<sub>3</sub> superlattices, little attention was paid to possible topological polar structures in SrTiO<sub>3</sub>. Here we successfully create previously unrealized polar antivortices within the SrTiO<sub>3</sub> of PbTiO<sub>3</sub>/SrTiO<sub>3</sub> superlattices, accomplished by carefully engineering their thicknesses guided by phase-field simulation. Field- and thermal-induced Kosterlitz-Thouless-like topological phase transitions have also been demonstrated, and it was discovered that the driving force for antivortex formation is electrostatic instead of elastic. This work completes an important missing link in polar topologies, expands the reaches of topological structures, and offers insight into searching and manipulating polar textures.