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Direct Observation of Multiferroic Vortex Domains in YMnO(3)

Topological vortices with swirling ferroelectric, magnetic and structural anti-phase relationship in hexagonal RMnO(3) (R = Ho to Lu, Y, and Sc) have attracted much attention because of their intriguing behaviors. Herein, we report the structure of multiferroic vortex domains in YMnO(3) at atomic sc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zhang, Qinghua, Tan, Guotai, Gu, Lin, Yao, Yuan, Jin, Changqing, Wang, Yanguo, Duan, Xiaofeng, Yu, Richeng
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3781397/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24061552
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep02741
Descripción
Sumario:Topological vortices with swirling ferroelectric, magnetic and structural anti-phase relationship in hexagonal RMnO(3) (R = Ho to Lu, Y, and Sc) have attracted much attention because of their intriguing behaviors. Herein, we report the structure of multiferroic vortex domains in YMnO(3) at atomic scale using state-of-the-art aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). Two types of displacements were identified among six domain walls (DWs); six translation-ferroelectric domains denoted by α+, γ−, β+, α−, γ+ and β−, respectively, were recognized, demonstrating the interlocking nature of the anti-vortex domain. We found that the anti-vortex core is about four unit cells wide. In addition, we reconstructed the vortex model with three swirling pairs of DWs along the [001] direction. These results are very critical for the understanding of topological behaviors and unusual properties of the multiferroic vortex.