Electric Field Control of Chirality

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the reversible electric field control of chirality in ferroelectric vortices using optical second harmonic generation, supported by theoretical modeling and microscopic experiments, with implications for chirality-based electronics.

Contribution

It introduces a method for deterministic control of vortex chirality in ferroelectrics using electric fields, combining experimental and theoretical approaches.

Findings

Reversible control of vortex chirality achieved

Chirality originates from non-chiral materials

Electric field switches vortex handedness

Abstract

Polar textures have attracted significant attention in recent years as a promising analog to spin-based textures in ferromagnets. Here, using optical second harmonic generation based circular dichroism, we demonstrate deterministic and reversible control of chirality over mesoscale regions in ferroelectric vortices using an applied electric field. The microscopic origins of the chirality, the pathway during the switching, and the mechanism for electric-field control are described theoretically via phase-field modeling and second-principles simulations, and experimentally by examination of the microscopic response of the vortices under an applied field. The emergence of chirality from the combination of non-chiral materials and subsequent control of the handedness with an electric field has far-reaching implications for new electronics based on chirality as a field controllable order parameter.