Hybrid antiferroelectric–ferroelectric domain walls in noncollinear antipolar oxides
] drives noncollinear ordering of electric dipole moments, which leads to unusual hybridization of antiferroelectric and ferroelectric responses. Besides the double-hysteresis loop common to antiferroelectrics, a pronounced piezoresponse and electrically switchable hybrid domains are observed using scanning probe microscopy. Scanning transmission electron microscopy shows that the domains are separated by atomically sharp and micrometre-long charged domain walls with inseparably entangled discontinuities in the antiferroelectric and ferroelectric orders. Hybrid antiferroelectric-ferroelectric responses are expected in a wide range of noncollinear systems.
Authors
- Niyorjyoti Sharma
- Mohsen Sadeqi‐Moqadam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9920-8845)
- Kasper A. Hunnestad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1732-3634)
- L. Bohatý (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9565-8950)
- Julia Glaum (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4871-4438)
- Dennis Meier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8623-6705)
- P. Becker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4784-3729)
- Muhammad Zeeshan Khalid (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7866-3870)
- Antonius T. J. van Helvoort (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6437-1474)
- J. Hemberger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5319-6914)
- Sverre M. Selbach (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5838-8632)
- Jiali He
- Christoph P. Grams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3763-0260)
- Ursula Ludacka
- Jorge Íñiguez-González
- Amit Kumar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1194-5531)
- Ivan N. Ushakov
- Mats Topstad
Institutions
- Queen's University Belfast (GB)
- University of Cologne (DE)
- University of Luxembourg (LU)
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO)
- Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LU)
- University of Duisburg-Essen (DE)
- Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Nanotechnology
- Published
- 2026-04-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-026-02139-8
- Primary Topic
- Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- European Commission
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg
- Norges Forskningsråd
- Universität Duisburg-Essen
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme