Related papers: Parity-breaking in single-element phases: Ferroele…
Ferroelectricity can exist in elemental phases as a result of charge transfers between atoms occupying inequivalent Wyckoff positions. We investigate the emergence of ferroelectricity in two-dimensional elemental materials with buckled…
Ferroelectricity, a hallmark of spontaneous inversion-symmetry breaking, has been a central concept in condensed matter physics and functional materials research, yet recent discoveries are revealing that switchable polarization can emerge…
Recent theoretical and experimental advances in quantum ferroelectrics suggest that ferroelectricity can also emerge in non-polar space group, highlighting the limitations of conventional polar space group criteria in identifying…
Ferroelectricity is usually found in compound materials composed by different elements. Here, based on first-principles calculations, we reveal the first example of spontaneous electrical polarization and ferroelectricity in stable…
Ferroelectric crystals must adopt one of the 10 polar point groups according to the Neumann's principle. In this paper we propose that this conclusion is based on perfect bulk crystals without taking the boundaries into account, and we show…
We study Fermi liquid instabilities in spin-orbit-coupled metals with inversion symmetry. By introducing a canonical basis for the doubly degenerate Bloch bands in momentum space, we derive the general form of interaction functions. A…
We have investigated the magnetic and dielectric properties of orthorhombic Eu$_{1-y}$Y$_y$MnO$_3$ ($0\leq y\leq 0.6$) single crystals without the presence of the 4$f$ magnetic moments of the rare-earth ions. In $y\geq 0.2$, the…
Over the past decade, materials that combine broken inversion symmetry with metallic conductivity have gone from a thought experiment to one of the fastest growing research topics. In 2013, the observation of the first uncontested polar…
Electric polarization typically originates from non-centrosymmetric charge distributions in compounds. In elemental crystalline materials, chemical bonds between atoms of the same element favor symmetrically distributed electron charges and…
A ferroelectric is a material with a polar structure whose polarity can be reversed by applying an electric field. In metals, the itinerant electrons tend to screen electrostatic forces between ions, helping to explain why polar metals are…
Spontaneous symmetry breaking and emergent polar order are each of fundamental importance to a range of scientific disciplines, as well as generating rich phase behaviour in liquid crystals (LCs). Here, we show the union of these phenomena…
The recent observation of a ferroelectric-like structural transition in metallic LiOsO$_3$ has generated a flurry of interest in the properties of polar metals. Such materials are thought to be rare because free electrons screen out the…
The possibility of reconciliation between seemingly mutually exclusive properties in one system can not only lead to theoretical breakthroughs but also potential novel applications. The research on the coexistence of two purportedly…
The first switchable electric polarization in metals was recently discovered in bilayer and trilayer WTe2. Strangely, despite the tininess of the ordered polarization, the ferroelectricity survives up to 350 K, rendering the mechanism of…
The recent discoveries of ferroelectric metal and Weyl semimetal (WSM) have stimulated a natural question: whether these two exotic states of matter can coexist in a single material or not. These two discoveries ensure us that physically it…
While defects are unavoidable in crystals and often detrimental to material performance, they can be a key ingredient for inducing functionalities when tailored. Here, we demonstrate that an A-site-deficient perovskite Y$_{1/3}$TaO$_3$…
We analyze a system of polar molecules in a one-dimensional optical lattice. By controlling the internal structure of the polar molecules with static electric and microwave fields, we demonstrate the appearance of a quantum phase transition…
Polar metals are an underexplored material class combining two properties that are typically incompatible, namely a polar crystal structure and reasonable electrical conductivity. These intriguing materials offer a unique combination of…
We review the class of materials known as polar metals, in which polarity and metallicity coexist in the same phase. While the notion of polar metals was first invoked more than 50 years ago, their practical realization has proved…
A variety of compounds, for example doped paraelectrics and polar metals, exhibit both ferroelectricity and correlated electronic phenomena such as low-density superconductivity and anomalous transport. Characterizing such properties is…