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Topological defects are quasiparticles whose topological nature provides some stability against perturbations. Skyrmions, domain walls, dislocations in crystals, vortices in superconductors and superfluids, and strings and monopoles in liquid crystals are all examples of topological defects. The concept of topological defects is diverse, spanning from condensed matter to fields such as particle physics and cosmology.
Large-volume high-resolution X-ray nanotomography is used to identify topological defects emerging in a self-assembled triblock terpolymer single-diamond network.
The bulk-boundary correspondence and the tenfold classification table are important concepts for topological insulators and superconductors as they determine the nature or absence of topological boundary states. Using generalized Su-Schrieffer-Heeger and Kitaev models, the authors demonstrate topological domain-wall states in the classes where topology is thought to be impossible.
Active turbulence is a dynamic state of active nematics that is in three dimensions realized as a network of reconfiguring and proliferating disclination lines. This work explores the scaling properties of active turbulence with material constants and the chirality-driven transition from a chiral active turbulence to an active blue phase.
This Perspective explores how the physical properties of these topological nanoscale systems, such as magnetic skyrmions and ferroelectric domain walls, can be leveraged for reservoir computing.
3D skyrmion strings are topological spin textures promising for spintronics applications, but their manipulation and dynamics are challenging to understand. Here, high-resolution 3D phase imaging reveals the melting dynamics of metastable skyrmions, accompanied by the emergence of (anti)hedgehogs, in (Fe,Ni,Pd)3P and FeGe helimagnets.
Authors predict polar Bloch points with negative capacitance in tensile-strained ultrathin ferroelectric PbTiO3 film by phase-field simulations, observing their polarization structures by scanning transmission electron microscopic imaging.
The antiferromagnetic material haematite, named for its blood-red colour, hosts swirling spin vortices termed merons. The rotation sense of such antiferromagnetic vortices has now been imaged in real space.
A paper in Nature Nanotechnology reports the room-temperature generation and control of meron–antimeron pairs in an antiferromagnet by means of electrical pulses.
Liquid crystal defect structures with topology similar to a Möbius strip can rotate, translate and transform into one another under an applied electric field.