Switching a polar metal via strain gradients

Abstract

Although rare, spontaneous breakdown of inversion symmetry sometimes occurs in a material which is metallic: these are commonly known as polar metals or ferroelectric metals. Their 'polarization', however, cannot be switched via an electric field, which limits the experimental control over band topology. Here we shall investigate, via first-principles theory, flexoelectricity as a possible way around this obstacle with the well known polar metal LiOsO${}_3$. The flexocoupling coefficients are computed for this metal with high accuracy with a completely new approach based on real-space sums of the inter-atomic force constants. A Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire-type first-principles Hamiltonian is built and a critical bending radius to switch the material is estimated, whose order of magnitude is comparable to that of BaTiO${}_3$.

References in corpus (2)

• First-principles theory of spatial dispersion: Dynamical quadrupoles and flexoelectricity
• Spin current in topologically trivial and nontrivial noncentrosymmetric superconductors

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Flexoelectric control of a ferromagnetic metal
• Perspective: strain and strain gradient engineering in membranes of quantum materials
• Free carrier induced ferroelectricity in layered perovskites
• Spin-Phonon Resonances in Nearly Polar Metals with Spin-Orbit Coupling
• Emergent superconductivity in doped ferroelectric hafnia
• Tunable polar distortions and magnetism in Gd${}_x$La${}_{1-x}$PtSb epitaxial films
• Engineering of Ferroic Orders in Thin Films by Anionic Substitution