Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
MA: Fachverband Magnetismus
MA 27: Focus Session: Skyrmions meet Multiferroicity
MA 27.7: Topical Talk
Wednesday, March 9, 2016, 12:20–12:50, H25
Skyrmionic states in ferroelectric nanocomposites — Yousra Nahas1, •Sergei Prokhorenko1,2, 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.