Point Group Symmetry and Deformation Induced Symmetry Breaking of Superlattice Materials

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework to analyze the complex symmetry properties of superlattice materials and investigates how deformation can induce symmetry breaking, affecting their physical properties.

Contribution

It introduces a systematic method for determining point group symmetry in superlattice materials and explores deformation-induced symmetry breaking phenomena.

Findings

Symmetry features vary across different dimensions and scales of superlattice materials.

Deformation can induce symmetry breaking, enabling property tuning.

Framework aids in understanding and predicting material behavior under strain.

Abstract

The point group symmetry of materials is closely related to their physical properties and quite important for material modeling. However, superlattice materials have more complex symmetry conditions than crystals due to their multilevel structural feature. Thus, a theoretical framework is proposed to characterize and determine the point group symmetry of nonmagnetic superlattice materials systematically. A variety of examples are presented to show the symmetry features of superlattice materials in different dimensions and scales. In addition, the deformation induced symmetry breaking phenomenon is also studied for superlattice materials, which has potential application in tuning physical properties by imposing a strain field.