Abstract
Ferroelectric topological textures in oxides exhibit exotic dipole-moment configurations that would be ideal for nonlinear spatial light field manipulation. However, conventional ferroelectric polar topologies are spatially confined to the nanoscale, resulting in a substantial size mismatch with laser modes. Here we report a dome-shaped ferroelectric topology with micrometre-scale lateral dimensions using nanometre-thick freestanding BaTiO3 membranes and demonstrate its feasibility for spatial light field manipulation. The dome-shaped topology results from a radial flexoelectric field created through anisotropic lattice distortion, which, in turn, generates centre-convergent microdomains. The interaction between the continuous curling of dipoles and light promotes the conversion of circularly polarized waves into vortex light fields through nonlinear spin-to-orbit angular momentum conversion. Further dynamic manipulation of vortex light fields can also be achieved by thermal and electrical switching of the polar topology. Our work highlights the potential for other ferroelectric polar topologies in light field manipulation.
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The data that support the plots within this article and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank S. Wu and L. Gu for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 12434002, 12425410, 52372100 and U24A2011), the National Key R&D Program of China (grant nos. 2022YFA1402502, 2021YFA1400400 and 2019YFA0307900), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant nos. BK20240005 and BK20233001) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (021314380269). H.S. acknowledges the China National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (grant no. BX20230152), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant no. 2024M751368) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant no. BK20241189). W.S. acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 123B2051). P.C. acknowledges the China National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (grant no. BX20240157), the Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent (grant no. 2024ZB517), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant no. 2024M751366) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant no. BK20241190).
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Y.N. and Y.Z. conceived and supervised the project. H.S. synthesized and analysed the crystalline structure of BTO–SAO–STO heterostructures with the help of Y.L., D.X., J.Y., S.Y., Z.M. and Z.W. under the supervision of Z.G., D.W. and Y.N. H.S. performed polarization characterizations and analysis with help from J.W., W.S., B.H., T.Z., Z.C., N.Z. and Y.G. P.C. conducted optical measurements and simulations under the supervision of Y.Z., with the help of J.M. W.M. conducted STEM measurements and analysis under the supervision of P.W. C.G. conducted the phase-field simulations under the supervision of H.H. Y.N. and H.S. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the data and contributed to the paper.
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Sun, H., Chen, P., Mao, W. et al. Ferroelectric topologies in BaTiO3 nanomembranes for light field manipulation. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-01919-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-01919-y
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