Paper detail

Liberation of slave modes inside domain walls in multiferroic Cu-Cl boracite

Domain walls (DWs), the two-dimensional boundaries between symmetry equivalent ferroic domains, are actively investigated due to their promise for novel logic and memory devices. Moreover, they can be easily created, erased and reshaped at a low energy cost due to their high mobility and large electrical conductivity. Most work so far has been focused on DWs in proper ferroelectrics, where the primary order parameter, ferroelectric polarization, interpolates between the values in the domains by either reducing to zero (in Ising-type DW) or rotating (Bloch type DW). Here we present a new member of DW family with a complex inner texture of slave order parameters inside the wall where the primary order parameter reduces to zero. Our first-principles-derived model predicts the existence of monopolar and toroidal polarization patterns. The results enable large-scale phase field simulations of complex domain patterns in boracites and could inspire novel devices based on domain walls in improper ferroelectrics.