Three-dimensional imaging of vortex structure in a ferroelectric nanoparticle driven by an electric field

D Karpov; Z Liu; T Dos Santos Rolo; R Harder; P V Balachandran; D Xue; T Lookman; E Fohtung

doi:10.1038/s41467-017-00318-9

Three-dimensional imaging of vortex structure in a ferroelectric nanoparticle driven by an electric field

Nat Commun. 2017 Aug 17;8(1):280. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00318-9.

Authors

D Karpov^{1

2}, Z Liu^{3

4}, T Dos Santos Rolo⁵, R Harder⁶, P V Balachandran⁴, D Xue^{4

7}, T Lookman⁴, E Fohtung^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA.
² Department of General Physics, Physical-Technical Institute, National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, 634050, Russia.
³ Condensed Matter Science and Technology Institute, School of Science, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150080, China.
⁴ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA.
⁵ Institute for Photon Science and Synchrotron Radiation, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
⁶ Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, 60439, USA.
⁷ State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xian, 710049, China.
⁸ Department of Physics, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA. efohtung@nmsu.edu.
⁹ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA. efohtung@nmsu.edu.

Abstract

Topological defects of spontaneous polarization are extensively studied as templates for unique physical phenomena and in the design of reconfigurable electronic devices. Experimental investigations of the complex topologies of polarization have been limited to surface phenomena, which has restricted the probing of the dynamic volumetric domain morphology in operando. Here, we utilize Bragg coherent diffractive imaging of a single BaTiO₃ nanoparticle in a composite polymer/ferroelectric capacitor to study the behavior of a three-dimensional vortex formed due to competing interactions involving ferroelectric domains. Our investigation of the structural phase transitions under the influence of an external electric field shows a mobile vortex core exhibiting a reversible hysteretic transformation path. We also study the toroidal moment of the vortex under the action of the field. Our results open avenues for the study of the structure and evolution of polar vortices and other topological structures in operando in functional materials under cross field configurations.Imaging of topological states of matter such as vortex configurations has generally been limited to 2D surface effects. Here Karpov et al. study the volumetric structure and dynamics of a vortex core mediated by electric-field induced structural phase transition in a ferroelectric BaTiO₃ nanoparticle.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.