Photo-induced nonvolatile rewritable ferroaxial switching

Area of Science:

• Condensed matter physics
• Materials science
• Photonics

Background:

• Ferroic phase switching is crucial for technological applications but faces challenges like speed limitations and domain volatility.
• Ferroaxial materials offer stable, symmetry-protected bistable states, but are difficult to manipulate with conventional techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a novel method for ultrafast switching of ferroaxial order.
• To overcome the limitations of conventional manipulation methods for ferroaxial materials.

Main Methods:

• Engineered an effective axial field using circularly driven terahertz phonon modes.
• Utilized terahertz pulses to induce and reverse ferroaxial domain switching.

Main Results:

• Achieved photo-induced switching of ferroaxial order.
• Demonstrated stable ferroaxial domains lasting for many hours.
• Successfully reversed the switched domains using terahertz pulses of opposite helicity.

Conclusions:

• The developed method enables robust and stable ultrafast switching of ferroaxial materials.
• This work paves the way for developing advanced ultrafast information storage platforms.