Self-charged polar nematic monopoles and hybrid topological states: intertwining and domain integration

Polar topological solitons are quasi-particles essential in condensed matter physics, with a key challenge being their topological diversification, control, and arrangement. This study demonstrates that confinement asymmetry can tailor and diversify electrically polar topological solitons in fluid ferroelectrics, providing a key pathway to solving the long-standing problem of designing large-scale, complex domain structures. We discover nonclassical electric monopoles and hybrid topological states, including chiral meron and anti-meron variants and their composite hybridization with a nested skyrmion core. They exhibit intrinsic self-charge and interact via nematic elasticity and electric polar interactions. The unique mechanism leads to the formation of multibody topological configurations by intertwining their polar flux. We propose utilizing solitonic structures as fundamental quasiparticles to design large-scale charged arrays in insulating fluids that function as local conductors. The self-organization offers an unprecedented opportunity to realize large-scale engineering of in-plane domain structures that were previously unachievable in traditional ferroelectrics. The authors find self-assembled polar topological networks in an emerging class of ferroelectric fluid, enabling large-scale domain engineering and controllable chiral order beyond solid-state ferroelectrics.