2024/06/20 by Ludovica Falsi, Pablo Villegas, Falsi, Ludovica +7 · 1 citation
Engineering · #Advanced Surface Polishing Techniques #Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) #FOS: Physical sciences #Ferroelectric and Negative Capacitance Devices #Optics (physics.optics) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2406.14646
openalex publication_date 2024/06/20 · openalex created_date 2024/06/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Phases manifesting topological patterns in functional systems, like ferroelectric and ferromagnetic vortex superlattices, can manifest intricate and apparently ungovernable behavior, typical of frustrated non-ergodic states with high-dimensional energy landscapes. This is also the case for potassium-tantalate-niobate (KTN) crystals. These transparent ferroelectrics manifest remarkable but little-understood metastable domain patterns at optical (micrometer and above) scales near the cubic-to-tetragonal structural phase transition. Here, we formulate the Topological Breakdown Model based on the competition between intrinsic scales of domain-domain collinear and non-collinear interactions associated with polarization-charge screening. The model is able to explain observed KTN mesoscopic domain patterns and phase diagram as a function of temperature and external electric field. Findings include a precise set of sharp and broad percolative transitions that are experimentally verified, validating our model. Our study identifies the central role played by competing topologically protected states, identifying a fundamental link between topological protection and frustration that supports a hitherto unexplored functional non-ergodic arena.