Merons in strained PbZr0.2Ti0.8 O3 thin films: Insights from phase-field simulations

Xujing Li, Houbing Huang, Fengxia Hu, Jian Tao Wang*, Changfeng Chen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Materials exhibiting nontrivial topological spin textures known as merons attract considerable interest for their fascinating underlying physics and promising device applications. The PbTiO3 family of compounds is known to host ferroelectric, ferroelastic, and piezoelectric polar orders and possess topological domain structures that are sensitive to external conditions. Here, we examine the polar states in PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 (PZT) thin films and explore the influence of film thickness and epitaxial strain via phase-field modeling under short-circuit (sc) and open-circuit (oc) boundary conditions. In this paper, we uncovered four distinct meron states in ultrathin films with tensile strains. Under the sc boundary condition, there is an intermediate meron bubble texture comprising a twisted Néel-like and Bloch-like meron texture with a distinct helicity and a meron bubble pair texture combining two intermediate merons along the z axis. Under the oc boundary condition, there is an antimeron bubble texture with negative winding numbers and an achiral topology, and a trimeron bubble texture with two antimeron bubbles and one meron bubble. These simulation results show that strain and film thickness have a major impact on the polarization strength and topology to dictate the formation and transition of meron phases in PZT thin films. The insights obtained in this paper may help elucidate and design materials with tailored and tunable microscopic and mesoscopic polar topological structures.

Original languageEnglish
Article number094116
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume109
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2024

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Merons in strained PbZr0.2Ti0.8 O3 thin films: Insights from phase-field simulations'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this