Electrically and mechanically driven rotation of polar spirals in a relaxor ferroelectric polymer

Topology created by quasi-continuous spatial variations of a local polarization direction represents an exotic state of matter, but field-driven manipulation has been hitherto limited to creation and destruction. Here we report that relatively small electric or mechanical fields can drive the non-vo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2024-01, Vol.15 (1), p.348-348, Article 348
Main Authors: Guo, Mengfan, Xu, Erxiang, Huang, Houbing, Guo, Changqing, Chen, Hetian, Chen, Shulin, He, Shan, Zhou, Le, Ma, Jing, Shen, Zhonghui, Xu, Ben, Yi, Di, Gao, Peng, Nan, Ce-Wen, Mathur, Neil. D., Shen, Yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/119/995
639/301/119/996
Asymmetry
Dielectric properties
Ferroelectric materials
Ferroelectricity
Fluorides
Humanities and Social Sciences
Infrared absorption
Materials science
Microscopy
multidisciplinary
Polymers
Relaxors
Retention
Robustness
Rotation
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spatial variations
Spirals
Topology
Vinylidene
Vinylidene fluoride
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Summary:Topology created by quasi-continuous spatial variations of a local polarization direction represents an exotic state of matter, but field-driven manipulation has been hitherto limited to creation and destruction. Here we report that relatively small electric or mechanical fields can drive the non-volatile rotation of polar spirals in discretized microregions of the relaxor ferroelectric polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride- ran -trifluoroethylene). These polar spirals arise from the asymmetric Coulomb interaction between vertically aligned helical polymer chains, and can be rotated in-plane through various angles with robust retention. Given also that our manipulation of topological order can be detected via infrared absorption, our work suggests a new direction for the application of complex materials. Polar spirals induced in a relaxor ferroelectric can be quasi-continuously rotated by applying electric/mechanical fields, due to an asymmetric Coulomb interaction. The rotations are non-volatile with robust retention, and can be optically read out.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-023-44395-5