In BiFeO₃/SrTiO₃ superlattice thin films, competing electrostatic and elastic boundary conditions can stabilize topologically non-trivial polar textures — merons and related structures — that have no analog in bulk crystals. Using Effective Hamiltonian Monte Carlo simulations, we mapped how these topological states form as functions of strain and electrical boundary conditions, providing the theoretical picture behind experimental observations from collaborators at UNSW Sydney.

Published: Nature Communications 14, 4178 (2023)

Techniques: Effective Hamiltonian (Fortran), Monte Carlo, polar topology, thin-film modeling. 

Collaborators: UNSW Sydney.