Materials with long-range order like ferromagnetism or ferroelectricity exhibit uniform, yet differently oriented three-dimensional regions called domains that are separated by two-dimensional topological defects termed domain walls\cite{Tagantsev2010,AlexHubert1998}. A change of the ordered state across a domain wall can lead to local non-bulk properties such as enhanced conductance or the promotion of unusual phases\cite{Seidel2009,Meier2012,Farokhipoor2014}. Although highly desirable, controlled transfer of these exciting properties between the bulk and the walls is usually not possible. Here we demonstrate this crossover from three- to two-dimensions for confining multiferroic Dy0.7Tb0.3FeO3 domains into multiferroic domain walls at a specified location within a non-multiferroic environment. This process is fully reversible; an applied magnetic or electric field controls the transformation. Aside from the aspect of magnetoelectric functionality, such interconversion can be key to tailoring elusive domain architectures such as in antiferromagnets.
@article{arxiv.1908.06876,
title = {Interconversion of multiferroic domains and domain walls},
author = {E. Hassanpour and M. C. Weber and A. Bortis and Y. Tokunaga and Y. Taguchi and Y. Tokura and A. Cano and Th. Lottermoser and M. Fiebig},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.06876},
year = {2021}
}