Revealing the three-dimensional arrangement of polar topology in nanoparticles

Chaehwa Jeong, Juhyeok Lee, Hyesung Jo, Jaewhan Oh, Hionsuck Baik, Kyoung-June Go, Junwoo Son, Si-Young Choi, Sergey Prosandeev, Laurent Bellaiche and Yongsoo Yang ()
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Chaehwa Jeong: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Juhyeok Lee: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Hyesung Jo: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Jaewhan Oh: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Hionsuck Baik: Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI)
Kyoung-June Go: Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)
Junwoo Son: Research Institute of Advanced Materials
Si-Young Choi: Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)
Sergey Prosandeev: University of Arkansas
Laurent Bellaiche: University of Arkansas
Yongsoo Yang: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract In the early 2000s, low dimensional ferroelectric systems were predicted to have topologically nontrivial polar structures, such as vortices or skyrmions, depending on mechanical or electrical boundary conditions. A few variants of these structures have been experimentally observed in thin film model systems, where they are engineered by balancing electrostatic charge and elastic distortion energies. However, the measurement and classification of topological textures for general ferroelectric nanostructures have remained elusive, as it requires mapping the local polarization at the atomic scale in three dimensions. Here we unveil topological polar structures in ferroelectric BaTiO3 nanoparticles via atomic electron tomography, which enables us to reconstruct the full three-dimensional arrangement of cation atoms at an individual atom level. Our three-dimensional polarization maps reveal clear topological orderings, along with evidence of size-dependent topological transitions from a single vortex structure to multiple vortices, consistent with theoretical predictions. The discovery of the predicted topological polar ordering in nanoscale ferroelectrics, independent of epitaxial strain, widens the research perspective and offers potential for practical applications utilizing contact-free switchable toroidal moments.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48082-x

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