Discovery of stable skyrmionic state in ferroelectric nanocomposites

Y. Nahas (), S. Prokhorenko (), L. Louis, Z. Gui, I. Kornev and L. Bellaiche
Additional contact information
Y. Nahas: University of Arkansas
S. Prokhorenko: University of Arkansas
L. Louis: University of Connecticut
Z. Gui: University of Arkansas
I. Kornev: Laboratoire Structures, Propriétés et Modélisation des Solides, CNRS-UMR8580
L. Bellaiche: University of Arkansas

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Non-coplanar swirling field textures, or skyrmions, are now widely recognized as objects of both fundamental interest and technological relevance. So far, skyrmions were amply investigated in magnets, where due to the presence of chiral interactions, these topological objects were found to be intrinsically stabilized. Ferroelectrics on the other hand, lacking such chiral interactions, were somewhat left aside in this quest. Here we demonstrate, via the use of a first-principles-based framework, that skyrmionic configuration of polarization can be extrinsically stabilized in ferroelectric nanocomposites. The interplay between the considered confined geometry and the dipolar interaction underlying the ferroelectric phase instability induces skyrmionic configurations. The topological structure of the obtained electrical skyrmion can be mapped onto the topology of domain-wall junctions. Furthermore, the stabilized electrical skyrmion can be as small as a few nanometers, thus revealing prospective skyrmion-based applications of ferroelectric nanocomposites.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9542 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms9542

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9542

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().