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Title: Global Formation of Topological Defects in the Multiferroic Hexagonal Manganites

Abstract

The spontaneous transformations associated with symmetry-breaking phase transitions generate domain structures and defects that may be topological in nature. The formation of these defects can be described according to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, which provides a generic relation that applies from cosmological to interatomic length scales. Its verification is challenging, however, in particular at the cosmological scale where experiments are impractical. While it has been demonstrated for selected condensed-matter systems, major questions remain regarding, e.g., its degree of universality. Here, we develop a global Kibble-Zurek picture from the condensed-matter level. We show theoretically that a transition between two fluctuation regimes (Ginzburg and mean field) can lead to an intermediate region with reversed scaling, and we verify experimentally this behavior for the structural transition in the series of multiferroic hexagonal manganites. Trends across the series allow us to identify additional intrinsic features of the defect formation beyond the original Kibble-Zurek paradigm.

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1400434
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1421830
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; p504
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Physical Review. X
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Physical Review. X Journal Volume: 7 Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 2160-3308
Publisher:
American Physical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Citation Formats

Meier, Q. N., Lilienblum, M., Griffin, S. M., Conder, K., Pomjakushina, E., Yan, Z., Bourret, E., Meier, D., Lichtenberg, F., Salje, E. K. H., Spaldin, N. A., Fiebig, M., and Cano, A. Global Formation of Topological Defects in the Multiferroic Hexagonal Manganites. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.7.041014.
Meier, Q. N., Lilienblum, M., Griffin, S. M., Conder, K., Pomjakushina, E., Yan, Z., Bourret, E., Meier, D., Lichtenberg, F., Salje, E. K. H., Spaldin, N. A., Fiebig, M., & Cano, A. Global Formation of Topological Defects in the Multiferroic Hexagonal Manganites. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.7.041014
Meier, Q. N., Lilienblum, M., Griffin, S. M., Conder, K., Pomjakushina, E., Yan, Z., Bourret, E., Meier, D., Lichtenberg, F., Salje, E. K. H., Spaldin, N. A., Fiebig, M., and Cano, A. Fri . "Global Formation of Topological Defects in the Multiferroic Hexagonal Manganites". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.7.041014.
@article{osti_1400434,
title = {Global Formation of Topological Defects in the Multiferroic Hexagonal Manganites},
author = {Meier, Q. N. and Lilienblum, M. and Griffin, S. M. and Conder, K. and Pomjakushina, E. and Yan, Z. and Bourret, E. and Meier, D. and Lichtenberg, F. and Salje, E. K. H. and Spaldin, N. A. and Fiebig, M. and Cano, A.},
abstractNote = {The spontaneous transformations associated with symmetry-breaking phase transitions generate domain structures and defects that may be topological in nature. The formation of these defects can be described according to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, which provides a generic relation that applies from cosmological to interatomic length scales. Its verification is challenging, however, in particular at the cosmological scale where experiments are impractical. While it has been demonstrated for selected condensed-matter systems, major questions remain regarding, e.g., its degree of universality. Here, we develop a global Kibble-Zurek picture from the condensed-matter level. We show theoretically that a transition between two fluctuation regimes (Ginzburg and mean field) can lead to an intermediate region with reversed scaling, and we verify experimentally this behavior for the structural transition in the series of multiferroic hexagonal manganites. Trends across the series allow us to identify additional intrinsic features of the defect formation beyond the original Kibble-Zurek paradigm.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevX.7.041014},
journal = {Physical Review. X},
number = 4,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Fri Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.7.041014

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