Electric field control of chirality in polar vortices

The complex polarization patterns emerging in ferroelectric/dielectric superlattices show novel phenomena and exotic functional properties like chirality [1,2] or negative capacitance [3] making them good candidates for next generation electronic devices.

Interestingly, chirality arise in PbTiO₃/SrTiO₃ polarization textures from a sequence of individually achiral materials. Because of the universal nature of chirality, manipulation of the handedness by thermodynamic fields would be of great interest, with potential application for chiral electronics.

In this talk, we present a simple model where the chiral response emerging in the polar vortex phase [2] can be controlled in a deterministic and reversible way by means of a homogeneous electric field [4]. Second-principles simulations together with second-harmonic generation circular-dichroism measurements have shown the existence of hysteresis between left- and right-handed chiral states under the application of such electric fields validating the theoretical modelling.

[1]: L. Louis et al. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 24, 402201 (2012)

[2]: P. Shafer et al. Proc. of the Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 115, 915-920 (2018)

[3]: A. K. Yadav et al. Nature 565, 468-471 (2019)

[4]: P. Behera et al. Sci. Adv. 8, eabj8030 (2022)