Motion and teleportation of polar bubbles in low-dimensional ferroelectrics

S Prokhorenko; Y Nahas; V Govinden; Q Zhang; N Valanoor; L Bellaiche

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-44639-4

Motion and teleportation of polar bubbles in low-dimensional ferroelectrics

Nat Commun. 2024 Jan 9;15(1):412. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-44639-4.

Authors

S Prokhorenko¹, Y Nahas², V Govinden³, Q Zhang^{4

5}, N Valanoor³, L Bellaiche²

Affiliations

¹ Physics Department and Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA. sprokhor@uark.edu.
² Physics Department and Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia. peggy.zhang@csiro.au.
⁵ CSIRO Manufacturing, Lindfield, NSW, 2070, Australia. peggy.zhang@csiro.au.

Abstract

Electric bubbles are sub-10nm spherical vortices of electric dipoles that can spontaneously form in ultra-thin ferroelectrics. While the static properties of electric bubbles are well established, little to nothing is known about the dynamics of these particle-like structures. Here, we reveal pathways to realizing both the spontaneous and controlled dynamics of electric bubbles in ultra-thin Pb(Zr_0.4Ti_0.6)O₃ films. In low screening conditions, we find that electric bubbles exhibit thermally-driven chaotic motion giving rise to a liquid-like state. In the high screening regime, we show that bubbles remain static but can be continuously displaced by a local electric field. Additionally, we predict and experimentally demonstrate the possibility of bubble teleportation - a process wherein a bubble is transferred to a new location via a single electric field pulse of a PFM tip. Finally, we attribute the discovered phenomena to the hierarchical structure of the energy landscape.

Abstract

Grants and funding