Emergent chirality in the electric polarization texture of titanate superlattices
Abstract
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.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 16, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.1711652115
Entities
People
- Ajay K Yadav
- Anoop R Damodaran
- Christopher T. Nelson
- Elke Arenholz
- Jacek C. Wojdeł
- Javier Junquera
- Jorge Iñiguez
- Lane W Martin
- Pablo Aguado-puente
- Pablo García-Fernández
- Padraic Shafer
- Ramamoorthy Ramesh
- Shang-Lin Hsu
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- Consejería de Economía y Hacienda
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- National Research Fund Luxembourg
- National Science Foundation
- United States Department of Energy
- University of Cantabria
- University of the Basque Country