Phase coexistence and electric-field control of toroidal order in oxide superlattices
SCIE
SCOPUS
- Title
- Phase coexistence and electric-field control of toroidal order in oxide superlattices
- Authors
- Damodaran, A. R.; Clarkson, J. D.; Hong, Z.; Liu, H.; Yadav, A. K.; Nelson, C. T.; Hsu, S.-L.; McCarter, M. R.; Park, K.-D.; Kravtsov, V.; Farhan, A.; Dong, Y.; Cai, Z.; Zhou, H.; Aguado-Puente, P.; García-Fernández, P.; Íñiguez, J.; Junquera, J.; Scholl, A.; Raschke, M. B.; Chen, L.-Q.; Fong, D. D.; Ramesh, R.; Martin, L. W.
- Date Issued
- 2017-10
- Publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- Abstract
- Systems that exhibit phase competition, order parameter coexistence, and emergent order parameter topologies constitute a major part of modern condensed-matter physics. Here, by applying a range of characterization techniques, and simulations, we observe that in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices all of these effects can be found. By exploring superlattice period-, temperature- and field-dependent evolution of these structures, we observe several new features. First, it is possible to engineer phase coexistence mediated by a first-order phase transition between an emergent, low-temperature vortex phase with electric toroidal order and a high-temperature ferroelectric a(1)/a(2) phase. At room temperature, the coexisting vortex and ferroelectric phases form a mesoscale, fibre-textured hierarchical superstructure. The vortex phase possesses an axial polarization, set by the net polarization of the surrounding ferroelectric domains, such that it possesses a multi-order-parameter state and belongs to a class of gyrotropic electrotoroidal compounds. Finally, application of electric fields to this mixed-phase system permits interconversion between the vortex and the ferroelectric phases concomitant with order-of-magnitude changes in piezoelectric and nonlinear optical responses. Our findings suggest new cross-coupled functionalities.
- URI
- https://oasis.postech.ac.kr/handle/2014.oak/114703
- DOI
- 10.1038/nmat4951
- ISSN
- 1476-1122
- Article Type
- Article
- Citation
- Nature Materials, vol. 16, no. 10, page. 1003 - 1009, 2017-10
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- There are no files associated with this item.
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