Gate Tunable Labyrinth Domain Structures in a van der Waals Itinerant Ferromagnet Cr₇Te₈

Abstract

Manipulating magnetic domain structure plays a key role in advanced spintronics devices. Theoretical rationale is that the labyrinthine domain structure, normally appearing in ferromagnetic thin films with strong magnetic anisotropy, shows a great potential to increase data storage density for designing magnetic nonvolatile memory and logic devices. However, an electrical control of labyrinthine domain structure remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate the gate-driven evolution of labyrinthine domain structures in an itinerant ferromagnet Cr7Te8. By combining electric transport measurements and micromagnetic finite difference simulations, we found that the hysteresis loop of anomalous Hall effect in Cr7Te8 samples shows distinct features corresponding to the generation of labyrinthine domain structures. The labyrinthine domain structures are found to be electrically tunable via Li-electrolyte gating, and such gate-driven evolution in Cr7Te8 originates from the reduction of the magnetic anisotropic energy with gating, revealed by our micromagnetic simulations. Our results on the gate control of anomalous Hall effect in an itinerant magnetic material provide an opportunity to understand the formation and evolution of labyrinthine domain structures, paving a new route towards electric-field driven spintronics.