Established in 2020 Wednesday, March 27, 2024


Discovery of a new topological phase could lead to exciting developments in nanotechnology
Illustration of merons in a twisted bilayer. The discovery of a new topDiscovery of a new topological phase in twisted bilayers could lead to exciting developments in nanotechnology. Image courtesy: Daniel Bennett.



CAMBRIDGE.- Cambridge researchers have discovered a new topological phase in a two-dimensional system, which could be used as a new platform for exploring topological physics in nanoscale devices.

Two-dimensional materials such as graphene have served as a playground for the experimental discovery and theoretical understanding of a wide range of phenomena in physics and materials science. Beyond graphene, there are a large number 2D materials, all with different physical properties. This is promising for potential applications in nanotechnology, where a wide range of functionality can be achieved in devices by using different 2D materials or stacking combinations of different layers.

It was recently discovered that in materials such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), which are less symmetric than graphene, ferroelectricity occurs when one layer slides over the other and breaks a symmetry. Ferroelectricity is the switching of a material's electric dipole moment with an electric field, which is a useful property for information processing and memory storage.

When 2D materials are twisted with respect to one another, they form a beautiful interference pattern known as a moiré superlattice, which can radically change the physical properties. When hBN and similar materials are twisted the different stacking regions become polarized, leading to a regular network of polar domains, which have also been shown to lead to ferroelectricity.

In this new study reported in Nature Communications, researchers from Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory and the University of Liège, Belgium, have discovered that there is more to these polar domains that everyone is studying: they are inherently topological and form objects known as merons and antimerons.

"The polarization in twisted systems points in the out-of-plane direction, that is to say perpendicular to the layers," said first author Dr. Daniel Bennett, who started this project at the Cavendish Laboratory and is now based at Harvard University, U.S..

"What we found is that the symmetry breaking caused by sliding or twisting also results in an in-plane polarization which is similar in strength to the out-of-plane polarization. The in-plane polarization forms a beautiful vector field, and its shape is determined entirely by the symmetry of the layers."

The discovery of the in-plane polarization shows that the electrical properties of 2D twisted systems are much more complex than previously thought. More importantly, combining both the in-plane and out-of-plane parts of the polarization, the team realized that the polarization in these twisted bilayers is topologically non-trivial.

"In each domain, the polarization field winds around by half a revolution, forming a topological object known as a meron (half a skyrmion)," said Dr. Robert-Jan Slager, whose group at the Cavendish Laboratory was involved in the study. "Throughout the twisted layer, a robust network of merons and antimerons forms."

"In physics, most things can be understood in terms of energy," said Bennett. "Nature is lazy and likes to do things in the most efficient way possible, doing so by minimizing the energy of a system."

The phase that a material will adopt is typically the one that has the lowest energy. However topological phases and topological properties are not determined by energetics, but by the various symmetries of a system. The physical properties of a system, such as its electric or magnetic fields, can form complex structures which wind or tie themselves in knots because they are forced to by symmetry.

"The energetic cost of untying these knots is very high, so these structures end up being quite robust," said Slager. "Being able to create, destroy and control these topological objects is very appealing, for example in the field of topological quantum computing."

In order to do this, the researchers' future goals are to develop a better understanding of topological polarization, as well as develop a proof of concept for a device in which the polar merons/antimerons they discovered can be controlled, or lead to exciting new physical phenomena.







Today's News

March 31, 2023

Discovery of a new topological phase could lead to exciting developments in nanotechnology

Three newly discovered sea worms that glow in the dark named after creatures from Japanese folklore and marine biologist

Discovery could be key to reducing leukemia treatment resistance

Mimicking biological enzymes may be key to hydrogen fuel production

Detecting coral biodiversity in seawater samples

Feed them or lose them: How developing nerve cells are influenced by essential amino acids

Energy-efficient and customisable inorganic membranes for a cleaner future

Microplastic found in Antarctic krill and salps

Bacterial injection system delivers proteins in mice and human cells

How did the orchid mantis adapt and evolve?

Study finds sulfate pollution impacts Texas gulf coast air

New paper investigates exoplanet climates

Rats! Rodents seem to make the same logical errors humans do

Imaging technique reveals electronic charges with single-atom resolution

Was plate tectonics occurring when life first formed on Earth?

Integrating unique long-term datasets reveals how upwelling affects marine life from the surface to deep seafloor

Dissecting the circadian clock in real time

Magnon-based computation could signal computing paradigm shift



 


Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez



Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the ResearchNews newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful