Unfolding of vortices into topological stripes in a multiferroic material

Abstract

Multiferroic hexagonal RMnO3 (R=rare earths) crystals exhibit dense networks of vortex lines at which six domain walls merge. While the domain walls can be readily moved with an applied electric field, the vortex cores were so far impossible to control. Our experiments demonstrate that shear strain induces a Magnus-type force pulling vortices and antivortices in opposite directions and unfolding them into a topological stripe domain state. We discuss the analogy between this effect and the current-driven dynamics of vortices in superconductors and superfluids.

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Multiferroic materials and magnetoelectric physics: symmetry, entanglement, excitation, and topology
• Aperiodic topological order in the domain configurations of functional materials
• Charged domain walls in improper ferroelectric hexagonal manganites and gallates
• Epitaxy of hexagonal ABO${}_3$ quantum materials
• Dimensionality-induced change in topological order in multiferroic oxide superlattices
• Superconducting States for Semi-Dirac Fermions at Zero and Finite Magnetic Fields
• Magnetization, specific heat, and thermal conductivity of hexagonal ErMnO${}_3$ single crystals
• Strain induced incommensurate phases in hexagonal manganites
• Recent Progress on Multiferroic Hexagonal Rare-Earth Ferrites (h-RFeO3, R = Y,Dy-Lu)
• Stabilization and modulation of the topological magnetic phase with a $Z_2$-vortex lattice in the Kitaev-Heisenberg honeycomb model: The key role of the third-nearest-neighbor interaction