2025/10/20 by Urmimala Dey, Dey, Urmimala, Natalya S. Fedorova +5
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Multiferroics and related materials #Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2510.17573
openalex publication_date 2025/10/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/22 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Chirality in solids is attracting growing attention as a potential ferroic order, yet virtually no paradigmatic example of a soft-mode achiral-to-chiral phase transition has been firmly established to date. Here we identify ferroelectric bubble domains as a model system that undergoes a strain-driven achiral-to-chiral transition exhibiting the hallmarks of spontaneous symmetry breaking. Using second-principles atomistic simulations, we uncover chiral phonon modes in ferroelectric/dielectric superlattices that soften under epitaxial strain following textbook soft-mode behaviour. The transition is accompanied by a change in topological character, highlighting an interplay between chirality and topology in these systems. This work provides a concrete step towards establishing chirality as a genuine ferroic order in solids.