Emergence of the Vortex State in Confined Ferroelectric Heterostructures

Hsu, Shang‐Lin; McCarter, Margaret R.; Dai, Cheng; Hong, Zijian; Chen, Long‐Qing; Nelson, Christopher T.; Martin, Lane W.; Ramesh, Ramamoorthy

doi:10.1002/adma.201901014

Title: Emergence of the Vortex State in Confined Ferroelectric Heterostructures

Journal Article · 19 July 2019 · Advanced Materials

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201901014 · OSTI ID:1633242

^[1]; McCarter, Margaret R. ^[2]; Dai, Cheng ^[3]; Hong, Zijian ^[4]; Chen, Long‐Qing ^[3]; Nelson, Christopher T. ^[5]; Martin, Lane W. ^[1]; Ramesh, Ramamoorthy ^[1]

Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The manipulation of charge and lattice degrees of freedom in atomically precise, low-dimensional ferroelectric superlattices can lead to exotic polar structures, such as a vortex state. The role of interfaces in the evolution of the vortex state in these superlattices (and the associated electrostatic and elastic boundary conditions they produce) has remained unclear. Here, the toroidal state, arranged in arrays of alternating clockwise/counterclockwise polar vortices, in a confined SrTiO$$_3$$/PbTiO$$_3$$/SrTiO$$_3$$ trilayer is investigated. By utilizing a combination of transmission electron microscopy, synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction, and phase-field modeling, the phase transition as a function of layer thickness (number of unit cells) demonstrates how the vortex state emerges from the ferroelectric state by varying the thickness of the confined PbTiO$$_3$$ layer. Intriguingly, the vortex state arises at head-to-head domain boundaries in ferroelectric α$$_1$$/α$$_2$$ twin structures. In turn, by varying the total number of PbTiO$$_3$$ layers (moving from trilayer to superlattices), it is possible to manipulate the long-range interactions among multiple confined PbTiO$$_3$$ layers to stabilize the vortex state. Finally, this work provides a new understanding of how the different energies work together to produce this exciting new state of matter and can contribute to the design of novel states and potential memory applications.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; AC02-06CH11357; FG02-07ER46417; DGE-1106400; DMR-1420620; DMR-1210588; GBMF5307; AC02‐06CH11357; FG02‐07ER46417

OSTI ID:: 1633242

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1543168

Journal Information:: Advanced Materials, Vol. 31, Issue 36; ISSN 0935-9648

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 32 works

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Giant Uniaxial Strain Ferroelectric Domain Tuning in Freestanding PbTiO ₃ Films Han, Lu; Fang, Yanhan; Zhao, Yunqi Advanced Materials Interfaces, Vol. 7, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.201901604	journal	April 2020
Three-dimensional polarization vortex configuration evolution in compressed BaTiO ₃ /SrTiO ₃ superlattice Peng, Di; Yang, Xinhua; Jiang, Wenkai Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 126, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5130956	journal	December 2019

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