Mechanical Control of Polar Patterns in Wrinkled Thin Films via Flexoelectricity

HX Shang and HT Dong and YH Wu and F Deng and X Liang and SL Hu and SP Shen, PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 132, 116201 (2024).

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.116201

Intriguing topological polar structures in oxide nanofilms have drawn growing attention owing to their immense potential applications in nanoscale electronic devices. Here, we report a novel route to mechanically manipulate polar structures via flexoelectricity in wrinkled thin films. Our results present a flexoelectric polar transition from a nonpolar state to uniaxial polar stripes, biaxial meronlike or antimeronlike polar structures, and polar labyrinths by varying wrinkle morphologies. The evolution mechanisms and the outstanding mechanical tunability of these flexoelectric polar patterns were investigated theoretically and numerically. This strategy based on flexoelectricity for generating nontrivial polar structures will no longer rely on the superlattice structure and can be widely applicable to all centrosymmetric or noncentrosymmetric materials, providing a broader range of material and structure candidates for polar topologies.

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