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Transferring orbital angular momentum to an electron beam reveals toroidal and chiral order

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

K.X. Nguyen
Y. Jiang
M.C. Cao
P. Purohit
A.K. Yadav
P. García-Fernández
M.W. Tate
C.S. Chang
P. Aguado-Puente
J. Íñiguez
F. Gomez-Ortiz
S.M. Gruner
J. Junquera
L.W. Martin
R. Ramesh
D.A. Muller

Abstract

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) and torque transfer play central roles in a wide range of magnetic textures and devices including skyrmions and spin-torque electronics. Analogous topological structures are now also being explored in ferroelectrics, including polarization vortex arrays in ferroelectric/dielectric superlattices. Unlike magnetic toroidal order, electric toroidal order does not couple directly to linear external fields. Instead, we find that the presence of an electric toroidal moment in a ferrorotational phase transfers measurable torque and OAM to a localized electron beam in the ballistic limit. We record these torque transfers from a high-energy electron beam using a momentum-resolved detector. This approach provides a high-sensitivity method to detect polarization fields and their more complex order parameters and topologies. In addition to toroidal order, we also demonstrate high-precision measurements of vorticity and chirality for polar vortexlike phases. © 2023 American Physical Society.

Date Published

Journal

Physical Review B

Volume

107

Issue

20

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85161357083&doi=10.1103%2fPhysRevB.107.205419&partnerID=40&md5=b53f3c0404227f0bf59ba7d3add9c79f

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevB.107.205419

Group (Lab)

Sol M. Gruner Group

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