Ultrafast non-volatile rewritable ferroaxial switching

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates ultrafast, non-volatile switching of ferroaxial order using circularly driven terahertz phonon modes, offering a promising new approach for ultrafast information storage.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to manipulate ferroaxial states with engineered terahertz phonon modes, overcoming previous challenges in ferroaxial control.

Findings

Ferroaxial domains can be switched ultrafast with terahertz pulses.

Switched states are stable for hours and reversible with opposite pulses.

The method enables potential ultrafast, non-volatile information storage.

Abstract

Ultrafast switching of ferroic phases is an important research frontier, with significant technological potential. Yet, current efforts are meeting some key challenges, ranging from limited speeds in ferromagnets to intrinsic volatility of switched domains due to uncompensated depolarizing fields in ferroelectrics. Unlike these ferroic systems, ferroaxial materials host bistable states that do not break spatial-inversion or time-reversal symmetry, and are therefore immune to depolarizing fields. Yet, they are difficult to manipulate because external axial fields are not easily constructed with conventional methods. Here, we demonstrate ultrafast switching of ferroaxial order by engineering an effective axial field made up of circularly driven terahertz phonon modes. A switched ferroaxial domain remains stable for many hours and can be reversed back with a second terahertz pulse of opposite helicity. The effects demonstrated here may lead to a new platform for ultrafast information storage.