From picometre displacements to a three-dimensional lattice gas of polar skyrmions
Abstract
Polar skyrmions, the electric analogues of magnetic skyrmions, form arrays in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices that are known to be only short-range ordered, but how this disordered ensemble is organized in three dimensions, and how its microscopic structure underlies this organization, have remained largely inaccessible. Here, using three-dimensional difference pair distribution function (3D-ΔPDF) analysis of X-ray diffuse scattering, we show that the polar skyrmion bubbles form a three-dimensional lattice gas: they occupy discrete sites, but their order extends over only a few neighbours and is two to three times stronger across the SrTiO3 spacers than within a layer. This interlayer coupling is consistent with the polarization of the bubbles extending into the spacers. Within each bubble, the polarization rotates in a predominantly Néel-type manner, and Pb and Ti rotate together with comparable picometre displacements, demonstrating that both A- and B-site cations take part in the polar distortion.
Related
- Three-Dimensional Shankar Skyrmions in Frustrated Antiferromagnets
- Octupole deformation in even-even Ra isotopes from covariant density functional theory with localized exchange terms in a three-dimensional lattice space
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BibTeX
@misc{bang2026from,
title = {{From picometre displacements to a three-dimensional lattice gas of polar skyrmions}},
author = {Joohee Bang and Nives Strkalj and Hugo Aramberri and Stephan Rosenkranz and Arkadiy Simonov and Morgan Trassin and Thomas Weber},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.22309},
eprint = {2610.22309},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.22309},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - From picometre displacements to a three-dimensional lattice gas of polar skyrmions
AU - Joohee Bang
AU - Nives Strkalj
AU - Hugo Aramberri
AU - Stephan Rosenkranz
AU - Arkadiy Simonov
AU - Morgan Trassin
AU - Thomas Weber
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.22309
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.22309
AB - Polar skyrmions, the electric analogues of magnetic skyrmions, form arrays in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices that are known to be only short-range ordered, but how this disordered ensemble is organized in three dimensions, and how its microscopic structure underlies this organization, have remained largely inaccessible. Here, using three-dimensional difference pair distribution function (3D-ΔPDF) analysis of X-ray diffuse scattering, we show that the polar skyrmion bubbles form a three-dimensional lattice gas: they occupy discrete sites, but their order extends over only a few neighbours and is two to three times stronger across the SrTiO3 spacers than within a layer. This interlayer coupling is consistent with the polarization of the bubbles extending into the spacers. Within each bubble, the polarization rotates in a predominantly Néel-type manner, and Pb and Ti rotate together with comparable picometre displacements, demonstrating that both A- and B-site cations take part in the polar distortion.
ER -