Abstract
Since the discovery of ferromagnetic two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) crystals, significant interest on such 2D magnets has emerged, inspired by their appealing physical properties and integration with other 2D family for unique heterostructures. In known 2D magnets, spin-orbit coupling (SOC) stabilizes perpendicular magnetic anisotropy down to one or a few monolayers. Such a strong SOC could also lift the chiral degeneracy, leading to the formation of topological magnetic textures such as skyrmions through the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). Here, we report the experimental observation of Néel-type chiral magnetic skyrmions and their lattice (SkX) formation in a vdW ferromagnet Fe3GeTe2 (FGT). We demonstrate the ability to drive an individual skyrmion by short current pulses along a vdW heterostructure, FGT/h-BN, as highly required for any skyrmion-based spintronic device. Using first principle calculations supported by experiments, we unveil the origin of DMI being the interfaces with oxides, which then allows us to engineer vdW heterostructures for desired chiral states. Our finding opens the door to topological spin textures in the 2D vdW magnet and their potential device application.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 104410 |
| Journal | Physical Review B |
| Volume | 103 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 5 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
S.W. acknowledges the support from IBM Research and the managemental support from G. Hu and D. Worledge. S.W. also acknowledges J. Zang for reading this manuscript and providing helpful comments. X.Z.Y. acknowledges the support from Grants-In-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (Grant No. 19H00660) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). T.-E.P., S.J.K., K.M.S., K.K., J.C., and H.C.K. acknowledge the support from the KIST Institutional Program (2E31032) and the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST) (Grant No. CAP-16-01-KIST) by the Korean government (MSIP). K.K. acknowledges the support from the Basic Research Laboratory Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the MSIT (Grant No. NRF-2018R1A4A1020696). X.Z. acknowledges the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12004320), and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Grant No. 2019A1515110713). Y.Z. acknowledges the support by Guangdong Special Support Project (Grant No. 2019BT02 × 030), Shenzhen Peacock Group Plan (Grant No. KQTD20180413181702403), Pearl River Recruitment Program of Talents (Grant No. 2017GC010293), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 11974298 and No. 61961136006). M.E. acknowledges the support by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from JSPS KAKENHI (Grants No. JP18H03676, No. JP17K05490, and No. JP15H05854) and also the support by CREST, JST (Grants No. JPMJCR16F1 and No. JPMJCR1874). X.L. acknowledges the support by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from JSPS KAKENHI (Grants No. JP20F20363, No. 17K19074, No. 26600041, and No. 22360122). J.C. acknowledges the support of Yonsei-KIST Convergence Research Institute. Y.D.K. was supported by Samsung Research & Incubation Funding Center of Samsung Electronics under Project No. SRFC-TB1803-04 and a grant from Kyung Hee University in 2018 (Grant No. KHU-20181299). A.H. and M.C. acknowledge support from European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreements No. 696656 and No. 785219 (Graphene Flagship). J.L. and H.Y. acknowledge support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11874059) and Zhejiang Province Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. LR19A040002). Part of this work was performed at the MAXYMUS endstation at Berlin Electron Storage Ring Society for Synchrotron Radiation II (BESSYII). We thank H.Z.B. for the allocation of neutron/synchrotron radiation beamtime. Part of this work was also performed at the PolLux (X07DA) endstation of the Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Villigen, Switzerland. We thank PSI for the allocation of synchrotron radiation beamtime.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation | 2019A1515110713 |
| Guangdong Special Support Project | 2019BT02 × 030 |
| Shenzhen Peacock Group Plan | KQTD20180413181702403 |
| Yonsei-KIST Convergence Research Institute | |
| International Business Machines Corporation | 19H00660 |
| Samsung | SRFC-TB1803-04 |
| Horizon 2020 Framework Programme | |
| Guangdong Provincial Pearl River Talents Program | 2017GC010293, JP17K05490, 61961136006, 11974298, JP18H03676, JP15H05854 |
| Japan Society for the Promotion of Science | 2E31032 |
| National Natural Science Foundation of China | 12004320 |
| Japan Science and Technology Agency | 26600041, JPMJCR1874, JPMJCR16F1, 17K19074, 22360122, JP20F20363 |
| Kyung Hee University | KHU-20181299 |
| Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology | |
| Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning | |
| National Research Foundation of Korea | |
| Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province | LR19A040002 |
| Horizon 2020 | 11874059, 696656, 785219 |
| National Research Council of Science and Technology | CAP-16-01-KIST |
| Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea | NRF-2018R1A4A1020696 |