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, is difficult to switch via an electric field, which limits the experimental control over band topology. Here we 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 an approach based on real-space sums of the interatomic 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}.