Ferrorotational domain walls revealed by electric quadrupole second harmonic generation microscopy

Guo, Xiaoyu; Owen, Rachel; Kaczmarek, Austin; Fang, Xiaochen; De, Chandan; Ahn, Youngjun; Hu, Wei; Agarwal, Nishkarsh; Sung, Suk Hyun; Hovden, Robert; Cheong, Sang-Wook; Zhao, Liuyan

doi:10.1103/physrevb.107.l180102

Ferrorotational domain walls revealed by electric quadrupole second harmonic generation microscopy

Journal Article · Wed May 24 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Physical Review. B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.107.l180102· OSTI ID:2419197

^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Fang, Xiaochen ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[2]; Hu, Wei ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Hovden, Robert ^[2]; Cheong, Sang-Wook ^[3]; ^[2]

Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); OSTI
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)
Institute for Basic Science, Pohang (Korea, Republic of); Pohang Accelerator Lab. (PAL) (Korea, Republic of); Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)

Domain walls are ubiquitous in materials that undergo phase transitions driven by spontaneous symmetry breaking. Domain walls in ferroics and multiferroics have received tremendous attention recently due to their emergent properties distinct from their domain counterparts—for example, their high mobility and controllability, as well as their potential applications in nanoelectronics. However, it is extremely challenging to detect, visualize, and study the ferrorotational (FR) domain walls because the FR order, in contrast to ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity, is invariant under both the spatial-inversion and the time-reversal operations and, thus, hardly couple with conventional experimental probes. Here, a FR candidate NiTi⁢O₃ is investigated by ultrasensitive electric quadrupole (EQ) second-harmonic generation rotational anisotropy (SHG RA) to probe the point symmetries of the two degenerate FR domain states, showing their relation by the vertical mirror operations that are broken below the FR critical temperature. We then visualize the real-space FR domains by scanning EQ SHG microscopy, and further, resolve the FR domain walls by revealing a suppressed SHG intensity at the domain walls. By taking local EQ SHG RA measurements, we show the restoration of the mirror symmetry at FR domain walls and prove their unconventional nonpolar nature. In conclusion, our findings not only provide a comprehensive insight into FR domain walls, but also demonstrate a unique and powerful tool for future studies on domain walls of unconventional ferroics both of which pave the way towards future manipulations and applications of FR domain walls.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); US Army Research Office (ARO); USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-07ER46382

OSTI ID:: 2419197

Journal Information:: Physical Review. B, Journal Name: Physical Review. B Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 107; ISSN 2469-9950

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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