State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
Science. 2021 Mar 5;371(6533):1050-1056. doi: 10.1126/science.abc4727.
Polar topological texture has become an emerging research field for exotic phenomena and potential applications in reconfigurable electronic devices. We report toroidal topological texture self-organized in a ferroelectric polymer, poly(vinylidene fluoride--trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)], that exhibits concentric topology with anticoupled chiral domains. The interplay among the elastic, electric, and gradient energies results in continuous rotation and toroidal assembly of the polarization perpendicular to polymer chains, whereas relaxor behavior is induced along polymer chains. Such toroidal polar topology gives rise to periodic absorption of polarized far-infrared (FIR) waves, enabling the manipulation of the terahertz wave on a mesoscopic scale. Our observations should inform design principles for flexible ferroic materials toward complex topologies and provide opportunities for multistimuli conversions in flexible electronics.
极性拓扑结构已成为新兴的研究领域，具有奇异现象和在可重构电子设备中的潜在应用。我们报告了在铁电聚合物聚（偏二氟乙烯-三氟乙烯）[P（VDF-TrFE）]中自组织的环形拓扑结构，其表现出具有反耦合手性畴的同心拓扑结构。弹性、电和梯度能的相互作用导致极化垂直于聚合物链连续旋转和环形组装，而沿聚合物链诱导弛豫行为。这种环形极性拓扑结构导致极化远红外（FIR）波的周期性吸收，从而能够在介观尺度上操纵太赫兹波。我们的观察结果应该为灵活铁电材料的复杂拓扑设计原则提供信息，并为灵活电子产品中的多刺激转换提供机会。
