Abstract
The ability to synthesize high-quality, complex-oxide heterostructures has created a veritable playground in which to explore emergent phenomena and exotic phases which arise from the interplay of spin, charge, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom. Of particular interest is the creation of artificial heterostructures and superlattices built from two or more materials. Through such approaches, it is possible to observe new phases and phenomena that are not present in the parent materials alone. This is especially true in ferroelectric materials where the appropriate choice of superlattice constituents can lead to structures with complex phase diagrams and rich physics. In this article, we review and explore future directions in such ferroic superlattices wherein recent studies have revealed complex emergent polarization topologies, novel states of matter, and intriguing properties that arise from our ability to manipulate materials with epitaxial strain, interfacial coupling and interactions, size effects, and more. We focus our attention on recent work in (PbTiO3)n/(SrTiO3)n superlattices wherein exotic polar-vortex structures have been observed. We review the history of these observations and highlights of recent studies and conclude with an overview and prospectus of how the field may evolve in the coming years.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 100901 |
| Journal | APL Materials |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 1 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors acknowledge support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative, under Grant No. GBMF5307, the Army Research Office, under Grant No. W911NF-14-1-0104, the National Science Foundation, under Grant Nos. DMR-1451219, CMMI-1434147, DMR-1608938, OISE-1545907, and DMR-1708615, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, under Grant No. DGE-1106400, the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, under Contract No. DE-AC02-05-CH11231: Materials Project program KC23MP, and the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Award No. DE-SC-0012375. Use of the Advanced Photon Source was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. This research used resources of the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Work at the Molecular Foundry was supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Author(s).