Weijie Zheng

2 months ago | nature.com | Weijie Zheng |Xingyue Ma |Zhentao Pang |Hongying Chen |Chunyan Zheng |Jianyi Liu | +9 more

Polar skyrmions have demonstrated rich physics and exotic properties for developing novel functionalities. However, so far, skyrmion nanodomains exist only in a few material systems, such as ferroelectric/dielectric superlattices, free-standing PbTiO3/SrTiO3 epitaxial bilayers and ultrathin Pb(Zr,Ti)O3/SrTiO3/Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 sandwiches. These heterostructures are fabricated with elaborately designed boundary conditions to meet the delicate energy balance for stabilizing topological phases. This requirement limits the broad applications of skyrmions in electronic devices. Here we show widespread skyrmion nanodomains in ferroelectric–antiferroelectric solid solutions, composed of ferroelectric PbTiO3 and one antiferroelectric PbSnO3 (Pb(Ti1–xSnx)O3), PbHfO3 (Pb(Ti1–xHfx)O3) or PbZrO3 (Pb(Ti1–xZrx)O3). The skyrmionic textures are formed by engineering dipole–dipole and antiferrodistortive–dipole couplings in competition between ferroelectric and antiferroelectric polar orderings, allowing the stabilization of topological phases. A phase diagram is built for the three solid solution series, revealing the stabilization regions of skyrmion nanodomains. In addition, the non-trivial domains also exhibit improved switching character, reversible writing/erasure and long-term retention for the electrical manipulation of polar configurations. These findings open an avenue for the investigation and exploitation of polar skyrmions in ferroelectric-based materials, providing opportunities in topological electronics. Polar skyrmions are of interest for nanoelectronics due to their exotic properties. However, so far, these are metastable states requiring a delicate balance of boundary conditions to form in heterostructures. In ferroelectric and antiferroelectric solid solutions, skyrmionic textures are observed to form in both bulk and film.

Nov 11, 2024 | pubs.rsc.org | Weijie Zheng |Cong Liu |Libei Yuan |Zhibiao Cui

Tailoring Hierarchical MnO2 Nanostructures on Self-Supporting Cathodes for High-Mass-Loading Zinc-Ion Batteries Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) with MnO2 cathodes have promising application prospects, however, their performance is hindered by their low efficiency and insufficient life.