Evolution of the domain topology in a ferroelectric

Abstract

Topological materials, including topological insulators, magnets with Skyrmions and ferroelectrics with topological vortices, have recently attracted phenomenal attention in the materials science community. Complex patterns of ferroelectric domains in hexagonal REMnO3 (RE: rare earths) turn out to be associated with the macroscopic emergence of Z2xZ3 symmetry. The results of our depth profiling of crystals with a self-poling tendency near surfaces reveal that the partial dislocation (i.e., wall-wall) interaction, not the interaction between vortices and antivortices, is primarily responsible for topological condensation through the macroscopic breaking of the Z2-symmetry.

References in corpus (2)

• The High Temperature Phase Transitions of Hexagonal YMnO3
• Electrostatic topology of ferroelectric domains in YMnO${}_3$

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Topological defects as relics of emergent continuous symmetry and Higgs condensation of disorder in ferroelectrics
• Aperiodic topological order in the domain configurations of functional materials
• Low-energy Structural Dynamics of Ferroelectric Domain Walls in Hexagonal Rare-earth Manganites
• Unfolding of vortices into topological stripes in a multiferroic material
• Hexagonal RMnO${}_3$: a model system for 2D triangular lattice antiferromagnets
• Three-dimensional vortex structures and dynamics in hexagonal manganites
• Charged domain boundaries stabilized by translational symmetry breaking in the hybrid improper ferroelectric Ca${}_{3-x}$Sr${}_x$Ti${}_2$O${}_7$