Super-moiré spin textures in twisted two-dimensional antiferromagnets

King Cho Wong; Ruoming Peng; Eric Anderson; Jackson Ross; Bowen Yang; Meixin Cheng; Sreehari Jayaram; Malik Lenger; Xuankai Zhou; Yan Tung Kong; Takashi Taniguchi; Kenji Watanabe; Michael A. McGuire; Rainer Stöhr; Adam W. Tsen; Elton J.G. Santos; Xiaodong Xu; Jörg Wrachtrup

doi:10.1038/s41565-025-02103-y

Super-moiré spin textures in twisted two-dimensional antiferromagnets

King Cho Wong
, Ruoming Peng
, Eric Anderson
, Jackson Ross
, Bowen Yang
, Meixin Cheng
, Sreehari Jayaram
, Malik Lenger
, Xuankai Zhou
, Yan Tung Kong
, Takashi Taniguchi
, Kenji Watanabe
, Michael A. McGuire
, Rainer Stöhr
, Adam W. Tsen
, Elton J.G. Santos
, Xiaodong Xu
, Jörg Wrachtrup

Correlated Electron Materials

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Stacking two-dimensional layered materials offers a platform to engineer electronic and magnetic states. In general, the resulting states—such as moiré magnetism—have a periodicity at the length scale of the moiré unit cell. Here we study magnetic order in twisted double-bilayer chromium triiodide by means of scanning nitrogen-vacancy microscopy. We observe long-range magnetic textures extending beyond the single moiré unit cell, which we dub a super-moiré magnetic state. At small twist angles, the size of the spontaneous magnetic texture increases with twist angle, opposite to the underlying moiré wavelength. The spin-texture size reaches a maximum of about 300 nm in 1.1° twisted devices, an order of magnitude larger than the underlying moiré wavelength, and vanishes at twist angles above 2°. The obtained magnetic field maps suggest the formation of antiferromagnetic Néel-type skyrmions spanning multiple moiré cells. The twist-angle-dependent study, combined with large-scale atomistic Monte Carlo simulations, suggests that the magnetic competition between the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction, magnetic anisotropy and exchange interactions—which all depend on the relative rotation of the layers—produces the topological textures that emerge in the super-moiré spin order.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	359-365
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nature Nanotechnology
Volume	21
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-02103-y
State	Published - Mar 2026

Funding

K.C.W., R.P., S.J., X.Z., M.L., Y.T.K., R.S. and J.W. acknowledge funding support by the EU via the project C-QuEnS 101135359, BMBF via project QCOMP 03ZU1110HA, QSOLID 13N16159 and QMAT 03ZU2110HA, and the Zeiss Foundation through the QPhoton. J.R. acknowledges Ricardo Rama-Eiroa for valuable discussions at the beginning of this project. E.J.G.S. acknowledges computational resources through CIRRUS Tier-2 HPC Service (ec131 Cirrus Project) at EPCC funded by the University of Edinburgh and EPSRC (EP/P020267/1); and ARCHER2 UK National Supercomputing Service via the UKCP consortium (Project e89) funded by EPSRC grant ref EP/X035891/1. E.J.G.S. acknowledges the EPSRC Open Fellowship (EP/T021578/1) and the Donostia International Physics Center for funding support. A.W.T. acknowledges support from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (ALLRP/578466-2022) and US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-24-1-0360). E.A. and X.X. at the University of Washington were supported by the Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering Division (DE-SC0012509). E.A. acknowledges the support by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under grant no. DGE-2140004. The device fabrication at the University of Washington acknowledges the use of the facilities and instrumentation supported by NSF MRSEC DMR-1719797. Crystal growth at ORNL (M.A.M.) was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division.

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Wong, K. C., Peng, R., Anderson, E., Ross, J., Yang, B., Cheng, M., Jayaram, S., Lenger, M., Zhou, X., Kong, Y. T., Taniguchi, T., Watanabe, K., McGuire, M. A., Stöhr, R., Tsen, A. W., Santos, E. J. G., Xu, X., & Wrachtrup, J. (2026). Super-moiré spin textures in twisted two-dimensional antiferromagnets. Nature Nanotechnology, 21(3), 359-365. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-02103-y

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title = "Super-moir{\'e} spin textures in twisted two-dimensional antiferromagnets",

abstract = "Stacking two-dimensional layered materials offers a platform to engineer electronic and magnetic states. In general, the resulting states{\textemdash}such as moir{\'e} magnetism{\textemdash}have a periodicity at the length scale of the moir{\'e} unit cell. Here we study magnetic order in twisted double-bilayer chromium triiodide by means of scanning nitrogen-vacancy microscopy. We observe long-range magnetic textures extending beyond the single moir{\'e} unit cell, which we dub a super-moir{\'e} magnetic state. At small twist angles, the size of the spontaneous magnetic texture increases with twist angle, opposite to the underlying moir{\'e} wavelength. The spin-texture size reaches a maximum of about 300 nm in 1.1° twisted devices, an order of magnitude larger than the underlying moir{\'e} wavelength, and vanishes at twist angles above 2°. The obtained magnetic field maps suggest the formation of antiferromagnetic N{\'e}el-type skyrmions spanning multiple moir{\'e} cells. The twist-angle-dependent study, combined with large-scale atomistic Monte Carlo simulations, suggests that the magnetic competition between the Dzyaloshinskii{\textendash}Moriya interaction, magnetic anisotropy and exchange interactions{\textemdash}which all depend on the relative rotation of the layers{\textemdash}produces the topological textures that emerge in the super-moir{\'e} spin order.",

author = "Wong, \{King Cho\} and Ruoming Peng and Eric Anderson and Jackson Ross and Bowen Yang and Meixin Cheng and Sreehari Jayaram and Malik Lenger and Xuankai Zhou and Kong, \{Yan Tung\} and Takashi Taniguchi and Kenji Watanabe and McGuire, \{Michael A.\} and Rainer St{\"o}hr and Tsen, \{Adam W.\} and Santos, \{Elton J.G.\} and Xiaodong Xu and J{\"o}rg Wrachtrup",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2026.",

year = "2026",

month = mar,

doi = "10.1038/s41565-025-02103-y",

language = "English",

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Wong, KC, Peng, R, Anderson, E, Ross, J, Yang, B, Cheng, M, Jayaram, S, Lenger, M, Zhou, X, Kong, YT, Taniguchi, T, Watanabe, K, McGuire, MA, Stöhr, R, Tsen, AW, Santos, EJG, Xu, X & Wrachtrup, J 2026, 'Super-moiré spin textures in twisted two-dimensional antiferromagnets', Nature Nanotechnology, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 359-365. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-02103-y

TY - JOUR

T1 - Super-moiré spin textures in twisted two-dimensional antiferromagnets

AU - Wong, King Cho

AU - Peng, Ruoming

AU - Anderson, Eric

AU - Ross, Jackson

AU - Yang, Bowen

AU - Cheng, Meixin

AU - Jayaram, Sreehari

AU - Lenger, Malik

AU - Zhou, Xuankai

AU - Kong, Yan Tung

AU - Taniguchi, Takashi

AU - Watanabe, Kenji

AU - McGuire, Michael A.

AU - Stöhr, Rainer

AU - Tsen, Adam W.

AU - Santos, Elton J.G.

AU - Xu, Xiaodong

AU - Wrachtrup, Jörg

PY - 2026/3

Y1 - 2026/3

N2 - Stacking two-dimensional layered materials offers a platform to engineer electronic and magnetic states. In general, the resulting states—such as moiré magnetism—have a periodicity at the length scale of the moiré unit cell. Here we study magnetic order in twisted double-bilayer chromium triiodide by means of scanning nitrogen-vacancy microscopy. We observe long-range magnetic textures extending beyond the single moiré unit cell, which we dub a super-moiré magnetic state. At small twist angles, the size of the spontaneous magnetic texture increases with twist angle, opposite to the underlying moiré wavelength. The spin-texture size reaches a maximum of about 300 nm in 1.1° twisted devices, an order of magnitude larger than the underlying moiré wavelength, and vanishes at twist angles above 2°. The obtained magnetic field maps suggest the formation of antiferromagnetic Néel-type skyrmions spanning multiple moiré cells. The twist-angle-dependent study, combined with large-scale atomistic Monte Carlo simulations, suggests that the magnetic competition between the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction, magnetic anisotropy and exchange interactions—which all depend on the relative rotation of the layers—produces the topological textures that emerge in the super-moiré spin order.

AB - Stacking two-dimensional layered materials offers a platform to engineer electronic and magnetic states. In general, the resulting states—such as moiré magnetism—have a periodicity at the length scale of the moiré unit cell. Here we study magnetic order in twisted double-bilayer chromium triiodide by means of scanning nitrogen-vacancy microscopy. We observe long-range magnetic textures extending beyond the single moiré unit cell, which we dub a super-moiré magnetic state. At small twist angles, the size of the spontaneous magnetic texture increases with twist angle, opposite to the underlying moiré wavelength. The spin-texture size reaches a maximum of about 300 nm in 1.1° twisted devices, an order of magnitude larger than the underlying moiré wavelength, and vanishes at twist angles above 2°. The obtained magnetic field maps suggest the formation of antiferromagnetic Néel-type skyrmions spanning multiple moiré cells. The twist-angle-dependent study, combined with large-scale atomistic Monte Carlo simulations, suggests that the magnetic competition between the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction, magnetic anisotropy and exchange interactions—which all depend on the relative rotation of the layers—produces the topological textures that emerge in the super-moiré spin order.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105029177559

U2 - 10.1038/s41565-025-02103-y

DO - 10.1038/s41565-025-02103-y

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SN - 1748-3387

VL - 21

SP - 359

EP - 365

JO - Nature Nanotechnology

JF - Nature Nanotechnology

IS - 3

ER -

Super-moiré spin textures in twisted two-dimensional antiferromagnets

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