Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 27: Focus Session: Skyrmions meet Multiferroicity

MA 27.7: Topical Talk

Mittwoch, 9. März 2016, 12:20–12:50, H25

Skyrmionic states in ferroelectric nanocomposites — Yousra Nahas¹, •Sergei Prokhorenko^1,2, Lydie Louis³, Zhigang Gui⁴, Igor Kornev⁵, and Laurent Bellaiche¹ — ¹University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA — ²University of Liege, Liege, Belgium — ³University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA — ⁴University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware,USA — ⁵Ecole Centrale Paris, Chatenay-Malabry, France

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.