Emergent chirality in the electric polarization texture of titanate superlattices

Journal Article · 15 January 2018 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1711652115 · OSTI ID:1417088

Shafer, Padraic  ^[1]; García-Fernández, Pablo ^[2]; Aguado-Puente, Pablo ^[3]; Damodaran, Anoop R. ^[4]; Yadav, Ajay K.  ^[5]; Nelson, Christopher T. ^[6]; Hsu, Shang-Lin ^[6]; Wojdeł, Jacek C. ^[7]; Íñiguez, Jorge ^[8]; Martin, Lane W. ^[9]; Arenholz, Elke ^[10]; Junquera, Javier ^[2]; Ramesh, Ramamoorthy ^[11]

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1. Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,
2. Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra y Física de la Materia Condensada, Universidad de Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain,
3. Centro de Física de Materiales, Universidad del País Vasco, 20018 San Sebastián, Spain,
4. Department of Materials Science &, Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720,
5. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720,
6. Department of Materials Science &, Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720,, National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,
7. Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, E-08193 Bellaterra, Spain,
8. Materials Research and Technology Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, L-4362 Esch/Alzette, Luxembourg,
9. Department of Materials Science &, Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,
10. Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Department of Materials Science &, Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720,
11. Department of Materials Science &, Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Energy Technologies, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720

Significance Many natural structures exhibit chirality that is essential to their functional interactions, yet the chiral electronic structures found in condensed matter systems have been primarily limited to magnetic materials. Notably, the electric dipole equivalent of magnetic skyrmions has remained conspicuously elusive. However, recent theoretical predictions and experimental observations of the continuous rotation of electric polarization in titanate superlattices suggests that such complex oxide nanocomposites are ideal candidates for realizing chiral electric dipole configurations. Here we present the results from superlattices of PbTiO ₃ and SrTiO ₃ using a combination of resonant soft X-ray diffraction and second-principles simulations. We observe chiral arrays of polar line defects, spontaneously formed by the complex interactions in these artificial superlattices constructed from two nonchiral lattices.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231; SC0012375
• OSTI ID: 1417088
• Journal Information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 115; ISSN 0027-8424
• Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English