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Electrically driven motion, destruction, and chirality change of polar vortices in oxide superlattices

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Abstract

Topological polar vortices, which are electric analogs of magnetic objects, present great potential in applications of future nanoelectronics because of their nanometer size, anomalous dielectric response, and chirality. To enable the functionalities, it is prerequisite to manipulate the polar states and chirality by using external stimuli. Here, we probe the evolutions of polar state and chirality evolutions of topological polar vortices in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices under an electric field by using atomically resolved in situ scanning transmission electron microscopy and phase-field simulations. We find that, under electric field, the chiral vortex cores can be moved laterally to form close-pair structures, transform into a/c domain stripes, and finally become a nonchiral c-domain. Such transition is reversible and spontaneous after bias removal. Interestingly, during switching and back-switching events, the vortex rotation can be changed, offering a potential strategy to manipulate vortex chirality. The revealed dynamic behavior of individual polar vortices at the atomic scale provides fundamentals for future device applications.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Pan Chen, Lifen Wang, Xiaomei Li, Lei Liao, Xiaomin Li, Zhi Xu, Wenlong Wang & Xuedong Bai

  2. International Center for Quantum Materials, Electron Microscopy Laboratory, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Pan Chen, Peng Gao, Yuanwei Sun, Ruixue Zhu, Ke Qu & Ning Li

  3. Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Intelligent Sensors and Advanced Sensor Materials, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, 411201, China

    Congbing Tan

  4. Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Zhexin Jiang, Xu Hou & Jie Wang

  5. Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing, 100871, China

    Peng Gao & Kaihui Liu

  6. School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Lei Liao & Xuedong Bai

  7. Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, 523808, China

    Zhi Xu, Wenlong Wang & Xuedong Bai

  8. State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructure & Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Kaihui Liu

  9. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, 411105, China

    Jinbin Wang, Xiaoping Ouyang & Xiangli Zhong

  10. Key Laboratory of Soft Machines and Smart Devices of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Zhexin Jiang & Jie Wang

Authors
  1. Pan Chen
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Peng Gao, Xiangli Zhong, Jie Wang or Xuedong Bai.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51991340, 51991344, 11974023, 51672007, 21773303, 11875229, and 51872251), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Nos. XDB33030200, and ZDYZ2015-1), the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0300804), the Key R&D Program of Guangdong Province (Grant Nos. 2018B030327001, 2018B010109009, and 2019B010931001), the Bureau of Industry and Information Technology of Shenzhen (Grant No. 201901161512), the Beijing Excellent Talents Training Support (Grant No. 2017000026833ZK11), and the “2011 Program” Peking-Tsinghua-IOP Collaborative Innovation Center for Quantum Matter.

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The supporting information is available online at http://phys.scichina.com and http://link.springer.com. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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Chen, P., Tan, C., Jiang, Z. et al. Electrically driven motion, destruction, and chirality change of polar vortices in oxide superlattices. Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 65, 237011 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-021-1820-4

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