Charles Paillard

Tailoring magnetic skyrmions in ultra-thin transition metal films

Skyrmions in magnetic materials offer attractive perspectives for future spintronic applications since they are topologically stabilized spin structures on the nanometre scale, which can be manipulated with electric current densities that are by orders of magnitude lower than those required for moving domain walls. So far, they were restricted to bulk magnets with a particular chiral crystal symmetry greatly limiting the number of available systems and the adjustability of their properties. Recently, it has been experimentally discovered that magnetic skyrmion phases can also occur in ultra-thin transition metal films at surfaces. Here we present an understanding of skyrmions in such systems based on first-principles electronic structure theory. We demonstrate that the properties of magnetic skyrmions at transition metal interfaces such as their diameter and their stability can be tuned by the structure and composition of the interface and that a description beyond a micromagnetic model is required in such systems.

Photovoltaics with Ferroelectrics: Current Status and Beyond.

Ferroelectrics carry a switchable spontaneous electric polarization. This polarization is usually coupled to strain, making ferroelectrics good piezoelectrics. When coupled to magnetism, they become so-called multiferroic systems, a field that has been widely investigated since 2003. While ferroelectrics are birefringent and non-linear optically transparent materials, the coupling of polarization with optical properties has received, since 2009, renewed attention, triggered notably by low-bandgap ferroelectrics suitable for sunlight spectrum absorption and original photovoltaic effects. Consequently, power conversion efficiencies up to 8.1% were recently achieved and values of 19.5% were predicted, making photoferroelectrics promising photovoltaic alternatives. This article aims at providing an up-to-date review on this emerging and rapidly progressing field by highlighting several important issues and parameters, such as the role of domain walls, ways to tune the bandgap, consequences arising from the polarization switchability, and the role of defects and contact electrodes, as well as the downscaling effects. Beyond photovoltaicity, other polarization-related processes are also described, like light-induced deformation (photostriction) or light-assisted chemical reaction (photostriction). It is hoped that this overview will encourage further avenues to be explored and challenged and, as a byproduct, will inspire other research communities in material science, e.g., so-called hybrid halide perovskites.

Photostrictive Two-Dimensional Materials in the Monochalcogenide Family

Photostriction is predicted for group-IV monochalcogenide monolayers, two-dimensional ferroelectrics with rectangular unit cells (the lattice vector a_{1} is larger than a_{2}) and an intrinsic dipole moment parallel to a_{1}. Photostriction is found to be related to the structural change induced by a screened electric polarization (i.e., a converse piezoelectric effect) in photoexcited electronic states with either p_{x} or p_{y} (in-plane) orbital symmetry that leads to a compression of a_{1} and a comparatively smaller increase of a_{2} for a reduced unit cell area. The structural change documented here is 10 times larger than that observed in BiFeO_{3}, making monochalcogenide monolayers an ultimate platform for this effect. This structural modification should be observable under experimentally feasible densities of photexcited carriers on samples that have been grown already, having a potential usefulness for light-induced, remote mechano-optoelectronic applications.

Postsynthetic Approach for the Rational Design of Chiral Ferroelectric Metal–Organic Frameworks

Ferroelectrics (FEs) are materials of paramount importance with a wide diversity of applications. Herein, we propose a postsynthetic methodology for the smart implementation of ferroelectricity in chiral metal-organic frameworks (MOFs): following a single-crystal to single-crystal cation metathesis, the Ca2+ counterions of a preformed chiral MOF of formula Ca6II{CuII24[(S,S)-hismox]12(OH2)3}·212H2O (1), where hismox is a chiral ligand derived from the natural amino acid l-histidine, are replaced by CH3NH3+. The resulting compound, (CH3NH3)12{CuII24[(S,S)-hismox]12(OH2)3}·178H2O (2), retains the polar space group of 1 and is ferroelectric below 260 K. These results open a new synthetic avenue to enlarge the limited number of FE MOFs.

Strain and Magnetic Field Induced Spin‐Structure Transitions in Multiferroic BiFeO3

The magnetic-field-dependent spin ordering of strained BiFeO3 films is determined using nuclear resonant scattering and Raman spectroscopy. The critical field required to destroy the cycloidal modulation of the Fe spins is found to be significantly lower than in the bulk, with appealing implications for field-controlled spintronic and magnonic devices.

Displacement Current in Domain Walls of Bismuth Ferrite

In 1861, Maxwell conceived the idea of the displacement current, which then made laws of electrodynamics more complete and also resulted in the realization of devices exploiting such displacement current. Interestingly, it is presently unknown if such displacement current can result in large intrinsic ac current in ferroic systems possessing domains, despite the flurry of recent activities that have been devoted to domains and their corresponding conductivity in these compounds. Here, we report first-principles-based atomistic simulations that predict that the transverse (polarization-related) displacement currents of 71° and 109° domains in the prototypical BiFeO3 multiferroic material are significant at the walls of such domains and in the GHz regime, and, in fact, result in currents that are at least of the same order of magnitude than previously reported dc currents (that are likely extrinsic in nature and due to electrons). Such large, localized and intrinsic ac currents are found to originate from low-frequency vibrations at the domain walls, and may open the door to the design of novel devices functioning in the GHz or THz range and in which currents would be confined within the domain wall.Domain wall electronics: More robust at high frequenciesDomain walls in bismuth ferrite are predicted to have high a.c. conductivity, which could be exploited to develop giga- and terahertz devices. The observation of conducting domain walls in otherwise insulating functional materials has raised the prospect of forming reconfigurable electronic circuits. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to definitively identify the mechanism driving d.c. domain wall conduction, although it appears to arise from material defects, making precisely controlled devices difficult to fabricate. Sergey Prosandeev and co-workers from the University of Arkansas, USA, and Southern Federal University, Russia, have used numerical modeling to show that high frequency domain wall conductivity can occur in multiferroic bismuth ferrite due to the intrinsic physics of the walls. By avoiding reliance on extrinsic factors this mechanism should provide a more robust platform for developing gigahertz regime electronics.

Vacancies and holes in bulk and at 180° domain walls in lead titanate

Domain walls (DWs) in ferroic materials exhibit a plethora of unexpected properties that are different from the adjacent ferroic domains. Still, the intrinsic/extrinsic origin of these properties remains an open question. Here, density functional theory calculations are used to investigate the interaction between vacancies and 180° DWs in the prototypical ferroelectric PbTiO3, with a special emphasis on cationic vacancies and released holes. All vacancies are more easily formed within the DW than in the domains. This is interpreted, using a phenomenological model, as the partial compensation of an extra-tensile stress when the defect is created inside the DW. Oxygen vacancies are found to be always fully ionized, independently of the thermodynamic conditions, while cationic vacancies can be either neutral or partially ionized (oxygen-rich conditions), or fully ionized (oxygen-poor conditions). Therefore, in oxidizing conditions, holes are induced by neutral and partially ionized Pb vacancies. In the bulk PbTiO3, these holes are more stable as delocalized rather than small polarons, but at DWs, the two forms are found to be possible.

Photostriction and elasto-optic response in multiferroics and ferroelectrics from first principles

The present work reviews a series of recent first-principles studies devoted to the description of the interaction of light and strain in ferroelectric and multiferroic materials. Specifically, the modelling schemes used in these works to describe the so-called photostriction and elasto-optic effects are presented, in addition to the results and analysis provided by these ab initio calculations. In particular, the large importance of the piezoelectric effect in the polar direction in the photostriction of ferroelectric materials is stressed. Similarly, the occurrence of low-symmetry phases in lead titanate thin films under tensile strain is demonstrated to result in large elasto-optic constants. In addition, first-principle calculations allow to gain microscopic knowledge of subtle effects, for instance in the case of photostriction, where the deformation potential effect in directions perpendicular to the polar axis is shown to be almost as significant as the piezoelectric effect. As a result, the numerical methods presented here could propel the design of efficient opto-mechanical devices.

Toy model for uncommon spin–orbit-driven spin-torque terms

A toy model combining the angular magneto electric (AME) coupling Hamitonian (Mondal et al 2015 Phys. Rev. B 92 100402) with long-range magnetic dipolar interactions is used to investigate spin-torque phenomena in a magnetic spin valve. It is found that such model (1) gives rise to spin-torque expressions that are analogous in form to those of the common spin-transfer torques; but also (2) predicts additional spin-torque terms, which are generated by an electrical current oriented along unconventional, in-plane directions. The magnitude of the AME induced terms is estimated and the conditions under which they may contribute significantly are explored.

New relativistic Hamiltonian : the Angular MagnetoElectric coupling

Spin-Orbit Coupling (SOC) is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the spintronics area, as it plays a major role in allowing for enhancing many well-known phenomena, such as the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, magnetocrystalline anisotropy, the Rashba effect, etc. However, the usual expression of the SOC interaction ħ/4m2c2 [E×p] • σ (1) where p is the momentum operator, E the electric field, σ the vector of Pauli matrices, breaks the gauge invariance required by the electronic Hamiltonian. On the other hand, very recently, a new phenomenological interaction, coupling the angular momentum of light and magnetic moments, has been proposed based on symmetry arguments: ξ/2 [r × (E × B)] M, (2) with M the magnetization, r the position, and ξ the interaction strength constant. This interaction has been demonstrated to contribute and/or give rise, in a straightforward way, to various magnetoelectric phenomena,such as the anomalous Hall effect (AHE), the anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR), the planar Hall effect and Rashba-like effects, or the spin-current model in multiferroics. This last model is known to be the origin of the cycloidal spin arrangement in bismuth ferrite for instance. However, the coupling of the angular momentum of light with magnetic moments lacked a fundamental theoretical basis. Starting from the Dirac equation, we derive a relativistic interaction Hamiltonian which linearly couples the angular momentum density of the electromagnetic (EM) field and the electrons spin. We name this coupling the Angular MagnetoElectric (AME) coupling. We show that in the limit of uniform magnetic field, the AME coupling yields an interaction exactly of the form of Eq. (2), thereby giving a firm theoretical basis to earlier works. The AME coupling can be expressed as: ξ [E × A] • σ (3) with A being the vector potential. Interestingly, the AME coupling was shown to be complementary to the traditional SOC, and together they restore the gauge invariance of the Hamiltonian. As an illustration of the AME coupling, we straightforwardly derived a relativistic correction to the so-called Inverse Faraday Effect (IFE), which is the emergence of an effective magnetic field under illumination by a circularly polarized light.