Electrically and mechanically driven rotation of polar spirals in a relaxor ferroelectric polymer

作者：Mengfan Guo, Erxiang Xu, Houbing Huang, Changqing Guo, Hetian Chen, Shulin Chen, Shan He, Le Zhou, Jing Ma, Zhonghui Shen, Ben Xu, Di Yi, Peng Gao, Ce‐Wen Nan, N. D. Mathur, Yang Shen · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-023-44395-5 · 被引用次数：16 · 研究领域：Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials、Advanced Materials and Mechanics、Liquid Crystal Research Advancements

Topology created by quasi-continuous spatial variations of a local polarization direction represents an exotic state of matter, but field-driven manipulation has been hitherto limited to creation and destruction. Here we report that relatively small electric or mechanical fields can drive the non-volatile rotation of polar spirals in discretized microregions of the relaxor ferroelectric polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride-ran-trifluoroethylene). These polar spirals arise from the asymmetric Coulomb interaction between vertically aligned helical polymer chains, and can be rotated in-plane through various angles with robust retention. Given also that our manipulation of topological order can be detected via infrared absorption, our work suggests a new direction for the application of complex materials.