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Updated: Nov 7, 2025
Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe1+YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope
Published on: March 24, 2019
Dimensionality-Induced Change in Topological Order in Multiferroic Oxide Superlattices
Megan E Holtz1,2, Elliot S Padgett1, Rachel Steinhardt2
1School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
Abstract:
We construct ferroelectric (LuFeO_{3})_{m}/(LuFe_{2}O_{4}) superlattices with varying index m to study the effect of confinement on topological defects. We observe a thickness-dependent transition from neutral to charged domain walls and the emergence of fractional vortices. In thin LuFeO_{3} layers, the volume fraction of domain walls grows, lowering the symmetry from P6_{3}cm to P3c1 before reaching the nonpolar P6_{3}/mmc state, analogous to the group-subgroup sequence observed at the high-temperature ferroelectric to paraelectric transition. Our study shows how dimensional confinement stabilizes textures beyond those in bulk ferroelectric systems.
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