Emerging phenomena from exotic ferroelectric topological states

G Tian,X S Gao,J.-M Liu,W D Yang

doi:10.1063/5.0039139

Abstract

In the past decade, a series of breakthrough discoveries in new exotic polar topological states have been witnessed, e.g., vortex, skyrmion, and meron. These tantalizing findings open a new avenue toward a plethora of emerging physical phenomena and offer opportunities for a wide range of future configurable electronic devices, which might eventually lead to an exciting area, the so-called “topotronics.” Although this field has seen a rapid progress, especially in revealing various novel topological states, the associated emerging phenomena and functionalities as well as application potentials yet remain largely unexplored, which might become fruitful areas in the upcoming years and thus deserve more attention. In this perspective, we give a brief overview on the recent advances in the field of exotic polar topological states, highlighting the emerging phenomena and efforts to control these functional topological objects. Finally, we present a concluding summary with some suggestions for future directions.

Highlights

In the past decades, the nontrivial aspects of topology—the invariance of certain properties under continuous deformation—in condensed matter physics have garnered intensive investigation.1–5 These efforts have led to the discoveries of a wide range of exotic physical properties and unusual states of matter, in reciprocal space, exemplified by the topological insulator1 and Weyl semimetal,2 which pave the way to future topological electronic devices
As ferroelectric polarization is intimately related with a diversity of physical properties, including the electric, optical, magnetic, and even mechanic properties in materials, observation of these tantalizing polar topologies might kindle the excitement for exploring the associated emerging properties and underpin prospect applications in topological electronic devices, namely, “topotronics.” An essential issue is how to controllably manipulate these topologies, which is critical for on-demand design and program of these properties
The DM interaction that is critical for the formation of the spiral configurations or complicated topologies such as skyrmion was theoretically predicted in perovskite ferroelectrics, which implies the existence of more complicated mechanisms and possible new topologies

Summary

Introduction

The nontrivial aspects of topology—the invariance of certain properties under continuous deformation—in condensed matter physics have garnered intensive investigation.1–5 These efforts have led to the discoveries of a wide range of exotic physical properties and unusual states of matter, in reciprocal space, exemplified by the topological insulator1 and Weyl semimetal,2 which pave the way to future topological electronic devices. As ferroelectric polarization is intimately related with a diversity of physical properties, including the electric, optical, magnetic, and even mechanic properties in materials, observation of these tantalizing polar topologies might kindle the excitement for exploring the associated emerging properties and underpin prospect applications in topological electronic devices, namely, “topotronics.” An essential issue is how to controllably manipulate these topologies, which is critical for on-demand design and program of these properties.

Results

Conclusion