Fig. 1: Observation of elongated polar skyrmions in CuInP2S6 crystals. | Nature Communications

Fig. 1: Observation of elongated polar skyrmions in CuInP2S6 crystals.

From: Observation of switchable polar skyrmion bubbles down to the atomic layers in van der Waals ferroelectric CuInP2S6

Fig. 1

a Schematics of the CuInP2S6 crystal structure. The antiparallel motions of Cu and In atoms result in out-of-plane and in-plane dipoles. b Large-area lateral piezoelectric force microscopy (L-PFM) amplitude and topographic mapping of coffee-bean-like polar textures on the surface of a 160-nm-thick CuInP2S6 crystal. The sample was scanned along the horizontal direction, and the detected polarization by PFM probe is along the arrow (bottom-left). c L-PFM and vertical piezoelectric force microscopy (V-PFM) mapping for the top-left region in b. d Enlarged dipolar configurations marked in red in (c). Schematic of the dipolar configurations is depicted at the bottom of (d). e Annular dark-field STEM image for identifying skyrmionic features. f Phase-field simulation of in-plane and out-of-plane polarization configurations for elongated polar skyrmions. The results resemble L-PFM and V-PFM responses. P represents normalized polarization.

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