[en] The observation of unexpected polarization textures such as vortices, skyrmions, and merons in various oxide heterostructures has challenged the widely accepted picture of ferroelectric domain walls as being Ising-like. Bloch components in the 180° domain walls of PbTiO3 have recently been reported in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices and linked to domain wall chirality. While this opens exciting perspectives, the ubiquity of this Bloch component remains to be further explored. In this work, we present a comprehensive investigation of domain walls in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices, involving a combination of first- and second-principles calculations, phase-field simulations, diffuse scattering calculations, and synchrotron-based diffuse x-ray scattering. Our theoretical calculations highlight that the previously predicted Bloch polarization in the 180° domain walls in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices might be more sensitive to the boundary conditions than initially thought and is not always expected to appear. Employing diffuse scattering calculations for larger systems, we develop a method to probe the complex structure of domain walls in these superlattices via diffuse x-ray scattering measurements. Through this approach, we investigate depolarization-driven ferroelectric polarization rotation at the domain walls. Our experimental findings, consistent with our theoretical predictions for realistic domain periods, do not reveal any signatures of a Bloch component in the centers of the 180° domain walls of PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices, suggesting that the precise nature of domain walls in the ultrathin PbTiO3 layers is more intricate than previously thought and deserves further attention.
Disciplines :
Physics
Author, co-author :
Zatterin, Edoardo; ESRF - The European Synchrotron, Grenoble, France
Ondrejkovic, Petr; Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Praha 8, Czech Republic
Bastogne, Louis ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Complex and Entangled Systems from Atoms to Materials (CESAM)
Lichtensteiger, Céline ; Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Tovaglieri, Ludovica ; Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Chaney, Daniel A. ; ESRF - The European Synchrotron, Grenoble, France
Sasani, Alireza ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de physique > Physique théorique des matériaux
Schülli, Tobias; ESRF - The European Synchrotron, Grenoble, France
Bosak, Alexei; ESRF - The European Synchrotron, Grenoble, France
Leake, Steven ; ESRF - The European Synchrotron, Grenoble, France
Zubko, Pavlo ; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, United Kingdom ; London Centre for Nanotechnology, London, United Kingdom
Ghosez, Philippe ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de physique > Physique théorique des matériaux
Hlinka, Jirka ; Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Praha 8, Czech Republic
Triscone, Jean-Marc; Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Hadjimichael, Marios ; Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland ; Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
SNF - Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung EU - European Union MSMT - Ministerstvo školství, mládeže a tělovýchovy České republiky F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique UKRI - UK Research and Innovation ESRF - European Synchrotron Radiation Facility FWB - Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Funding text :
The authors thank Evgenios Stylianidis for help with sample fabrication, Pavel M\u00E1rton for help with treating second-principles data, Ji\u0159\u00ED Kulda for his generous support with the mp _ tools software package, and Jorge \u00CD\u00F1iguez-Gonz\u00E1lez and Fernando G\u00F3mez-Ortiz for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Scientific Exchanges Scheme [Grant No. IZSEZ0_212990 (M.H.)], by Division II of the SNSF [Project No. 200021_200636 (C.L., L.\u2009T., J.-M.T., M.H.)], and the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program [Grant Agreement No. 766726\u2014TSAR (P.O., L.\u2009B., A.\u2009S., P.\u2009Z., P.\u2009G., J.H.)]. P.\u2009O. and J.\u2009H. acknowledge the assistance provided by the Operational Programme Johannes Amos Comenius of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic, within the frame of project Ferroic Multifunctionalities (FerrMion) [Project No. CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004591], co-funded by the European Union. P.\u2009G. acknowledges support from F.R.S.-FNRS Belgium (Grant No. T.0107.20, PROMOSPAN). M.\u2009H. acknowledges support from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). We acknowledge the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility for provision of synchrotron radiation facilities and the ID01 and ID28 beamline staff for support during the synchrotron experiments. For simulations, we acknowledge access to the CECI supercomputer facilities funded by the F.R.S.-FNRS Belgium (Grant No. 2.5020.1) and to the Tier-1 supercomputer of the F\u00E9d\u00E9ration Wallonie-Bruxelles funded by the Walloon Region of Belgium (Grant No. 1117545).
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