Abstract
Particle-like topological structures such as polar skyrmions in ferroelectrics have the potential for application in high-density information storage. Since the polar topologies arise from a complicated competitive energy balance, such non-trivial topological states are difficult to manipulate by applying non-persistent external stimuli, such as bias or strain. Thus, a flexible strategy for manipulating topological polar states is needed to realize ultrahigh-density topological devices. Here we demonstrate that thermal excitation can simultaneously regulate the competition of elastic, electrostatic, polarization gradient and Landau energies to trigger polar topological state switching. By designing the temperature evolution pathways, the individual states that are believed to be unstable or intermediate can now be switched and stabilized. Therefore, our strategy expands the diversity of polar topologies in a single superlattice system. Furthermore, we demonstrate the laser-based thermal local switching of polar solitons ranging from several hundred nanometres to a few topologies. These findings will advance the design of polar topology-based ultrahigh-density storage.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
H.T. acknowledges the National Key Research and Development Program of China (no. 2021YFA1500800), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 12125407) and the Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. U21A2067). Z.H. acknowledges the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (no. 2023QZJH13) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 92166104). Y.W. acknowledges the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (no. LD24E020003). Y.W.X. acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 11934016 and 12325402). H.Z.G. acknowledges the National Key Research and Development Program of China (nos. 2021YFA1400200 and 2021YFA0718701) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 12174347 and 12474021).
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H.T. and Z.Z. co-designed the project. P.R.T. and K.D. performed the experiments. P.R.T. and K.D. took charge of the data analysis. L.M.Z., Z.H. and Y.W. did the phase field modelling. M.Z. and Y.W.X. synthesized the samples. P.R.T., H.T., L.M.Z. and Z.H. co-wrote the paper. All authors contributed to the discussions and manuscript preparation.
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Extended data
Extended Data Fig. 1 Stability of PbTiO3 at high temperatures.
Each temperature maintained for two minutes. Scale bars, 2 nm.
Extended Data Fig. 2 High-resolution temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction θ − 2θ scans about the 002pc-diffraction condition of the DyScO3 substrate.
θ − 2θ scans reveal a decrease in the intensity of peak corresponding to the vortex (labelled V, c = 3.916 Å) through Path I (350 °C- RT), while the central Bragg peak (labelled F, c = 3.896 Å) along with first order superlattice reflections (labelled F(-1)) remained unchanged, implying a phase transition from the polar vortices to wave. Through path II (500 °C- RT), the vortex peak re-emerged, indicating a reconfiguration of polar vortices.
Extended Data Fig. 3 Planar HAADF-STEM images before and after 350 °C, 450 °C air heat treatment.
Images showing (a) initial polar vortices, (b) polar wave state and (c) polar soliton state. The operation was done in a tube furnace. The cooling times were around 30 min.
Extended Data Fig. 4 Phase field simulation of polar solitons.
a–c, When treated the (SrTiO3)10/(PbTiO3)10 superlattice from 310 °C to RT, a (the RT polar vortices) transformed into c (the RT polar solitons). Scale bar, 5 nm. d, The enlarged areas of the polar mapping in a (marked by a red box) and c (marked by green and blue boxes), showing the configurations of different polar topologies. Scale bar, 2 nm.
Extended Data Fig. 5 HAADF-STEM images of polar solitons state.
When treated the superlattice from 450 °C to RT, we obtained a RT polar solitons state where many polar topologies coexist. The planar-view low-magnification HAADF-STEM image (a) revealing arrays of circular feature with typical diameters of 4 nm. Scale bar, 10 nm. The planar-view high-magnification HAADF-STEM images and polar map (b) showing different polar states: vortex, anti-vortex and center-divergent polar solitons (marked by circles) and polar vortices (marked by boxes). Scale bar, 1 nm. c, The sketch maps of anti-vortex, vortex and center-divergent polar solitons in b.
Extended Data Fig. 6 The thermal local topological phase transitions.
The planar HAADF-STEM images after laser heating, record the local transitions from polar vortices to polar solitons. The dashed circles mark the ranges of solitons states. By changing the laser parameters and working distances, the local topological phase manipulations, ranging from several hundred nanometers to a few topologies (~30 nm) were achieved. Both in-situ and ex-situ laser experiments were conducted. The in-situ laser experiments were conducted by the in-situ optical fiber technique. The ex-situ experiments were conducted by ultrafast laser processing system. Scale bars, 50 nm.
Extended Data Fig. 7 The polar states in (PbTiO3)8/(SrTiO3)10.
With the temperature increasing, the polar waves flattened and transformed into single domain. The corresponding Pop and Pip maps are provided to clearly demonstrate the different features of these polar states. Scale bars, 2 nm.
Extended Data Fig. 8 Energetics of thermal-induced polar phase transitions in the (PbTiO3)10/(SrTiO3)10 superlattice.
Relative total energy density (Left) and Landau energy density (Right) as a function of temperature. The energy of the vortex, polar wave, and single domain phases were calculated using the same configurations as those at 25 °C, 250 °C, and 525 °C. The results indicate that the vortex phase is thermodynamically more stable at low temperature, the wave phase is favored at intermediate temperature, and the single domain phase prevails under high temperature. It can be seen that the total energy of the vortex and wave phases increases monotonically with increasing temperature, which is mainly attributed to the increase of Landau energy of the phases. This can be understood since the magnitude of the Landau coefficient α1 decreases with increasing temperature. Whereas the energy for single domain state is relatively stable, due to the highly reduced polarization for the single domain. Moreover, the slope of the energy increase for the vortex phase is much larger than the wave phase. This can be attributed to the higher polarization magnitude for the vortex phase than the wave phase.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Figs. 1–7.
Supplementary Video 1
A video showing the polarization dynamics of the ‘250 °C to RT’ pathway based on phase-field simulation.
Supplementary Video 2
A video showing the polarization dynamics of the ‘425 °C to RT’ pathway based on phase-field simulation.
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Source Data Fig. 2
Statistical source data.
Source Data Fig. 4
Statistical source data.
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Tong, P., Zhou, L., Du, K. et al. Thermal triggering for multi-state switching of polar topologies. Nat. Phys. 21, 464–470 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02729-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02729-0
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