Global Formation of Topological Defects in the Multiferroic Hexagonal Manganites
Global Formation of Topological Defects in the Multiferroic Hexagonal Manganites
The spontaneous transformations associated with symmetry-breaking phase transitions generate domain structures and defects that may be topological in nature. The formation of these defects can be described according to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, which provides a generic relation that applies from cosmological to interatomic lengthscales. Its verification is challenging, however, in …