Electric-field-induced multiferroic topological solitons.

Abstract

Topologically protected spin whirls in ferromagnets are foreseen as the cart-horse of solitonic information technologies. Nevertheless, the future of skyrmionics may rely on antiferromagnets due to their immunity to dipolar fields, straight motion along the driving force and ultrafast dynamics. While complex topological objects were recently discovered in intrinsic antiferromagnets, mastering their nucleation, stabilization and manipulation with energy-efficient means remains an outstanding challenge. Designing topological polar states in magnetoelectric antiferromagnetic multiferroics would allow one to electrically write, detect and erase topological antiferromagnetic entities. Here we stabilize ferroelectric centre states using a radial electric field in multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films. We show that such polar textures contain flux closures of antiferromagnetic spin cycloids, with distinct antiferromagnetic entities at their cores depending on the electric field polarity. By tuning the epitaxial strain, quadrants of canted antiferromagnetic domains can also be electrically designed. These results open the path to reconfigurable topological states in multiferroic antiferromagnets.