Imaging Topological Defects in a Noncollinear Antiferromagnet

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.128.187201
• Publication Date: 2022-05-04T19:37:30Z
• Authors: Aurore Finco; Angela Haykal; Stéphane Fusil; Pawan Kumar; Pauline Dufour; Anne Forget; Dorothée Colson; Jean-Yves Chauleau; Michel Viret; Nicolas Jaouen; Vincent Garcia; Vincent Jacques
• Keywords: Topological defect

We report on the formation of topological defects emerging from cycloidal antiferromagnetic order at surface bulk BiFeO_{3} crystals. Combining reciprocal and real-space magnetic imaging techniques, we first observe, in a single ferroelectric domain, coexistence domains which cycloid propagates along different wave vectors. then show that direction these vectors is not strictly locked to preferred crystallographic axes as continuous rotations bridge At junctions between domains, observe line identical those found broad variety lamellar physical systems with rotational symmetries. Our work establishes presence objects room temperature multiferroic antiferromagnet BiFeO_{3}, offering new possibilities for their use spintronics.