Absence of critical thickness for polar skyrmions with breaking the Kittel’s law

Feng-Hui Gong, Yun-Long Tang, Yu-Jia Wang, Yu-Ting Chen, Bo Wu, Li-Xin Yang, Yin-Lian Zhu () and Xiu-Liang Ma ()
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Feng-Hui Gong: Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yun-Long Tang: Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yu-Jia Wang: Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yu-Ting Chen: Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Bo Wu: Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory
Li-Xin Yang: Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yin-Lian Zhu: Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xiu-Liang Ma: Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The period of polar domain (d) in ferroics was commonly believed to scale with corresponding film thicknesses (h), following the classical Kittel’s law of d ∝ $$\sqrt{h}$$ h . Here, we have not only observed that this relationship fails in the case of polar skyrmions, where the period shrinks nearly to a constant value, or even experiences a slight increase, but also discovered that skyrmions have further persisted in [(PbTiO3)2/(SrTiO3)2]10 ultrathin superlattices. Both experimental and theoretical results indicate that the skyrmion periods (d) and PbTiO3 layer thicknesses in superlattice (h) obey the hyperbolic function of d = Ah + $$\frac{{{\mbox{B}}}}{h}$$ B h other than previous believed, simple square root law. Phase-field analysis indicates that the relationship originates from the different energy competitions of the superlattices with PbTiO3 layer thicknesses. This work exemplified the critical size problems faced by nanoscale ferroelectric device designing in the post-Moore era.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39169-y

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