Saidur R. Bakaul1

Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois, USA

 

Polar skyrmions and bubble domains emerge in complex oxide ferroelectric (FE) – dielectric (DE)– FE heterostructures due to competing electrostatic, strain, and gradient energy terms. Owing to their unique capacitive and piezoelectric properties, these tiny (~ 10 nm) topological structures have immense potential for future nanoelectronics and sensing applications. However, a key bottleneck lies between these exotic states of matter and their applications; they can be created only on epitaxially-clamped complex oxide substrates and cannot be interfaced with industry workhorse materials such as silicon and GaAs. Recently, epitaxial layer transfer techniques have been developed to make complex oxide films freestanding which allows their subsequent integration with arbitrary substrates.[1-4] However, these techniques have not yet been applied to a material hosting electric skyrmions and bubbles; therefore, a crucial question remains: will these topological objects be able to exist in a freestanding state? In this talk, I will show that they indeed can exist in a freestanding state despite the presence of structural ripples. I will also discuss various local ferroelectric properties in freestanding state such as domain wall motion and the effects of ripples on them.