Manipulation of Magnetic Skyrmion in a 2D van der Waals Heterostructure via Both Electric and Magnetic Fields

Abstract

As a promising candidate for the much-desired low power consumption spintronic devices, 2D magnetic van der Waals material also provides a versatile platform for the design and control of topological spin textures. In this work on WTe 2 /CrCl 3 bilayer van der Waals heterostructures, a complete Néel-type skyrmion-bimeron-ferromagnet phase transition is demonstrated, accompanied by the evolution of the topological number. This cyclic transition, mediated by a perpendicular magnetic field, is largely driven by the competition between the out-of-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy and magnetic dipole-dipole interaction. In the presence of a driving current, the Néel-type skyrmion gains a higher velocity yet larger skyrmion Hall angle, in comparison to the bimeron. By incorporating a ferroelectric CuInP 2 S 6 monolayer as a substrate, writing and erasing of skyrmions may be regulated using a ferroelectric polarization. This work sheds light on a novel approach to the design and control of magnetic skyrmions on 2D van der Waals materials.

Stabilization of skyrmions in two-dimensional systems with next-nearest-neighbor exchange interactions

“…This indicates that the role of J 2 is similar to the role of D 2 and leads to meron-like spin textures. Nevertheless, it is a short-ranged exchange interaction, only resulting in bimerons instead of meron chains or trimerons [27]. In this case, the total energy shown in Figure 4B is similar to the tendency in the presence of exchange interaction in Figure 3B not sensitive to the strength of DM coupling and the difference of spin configurations.…”

Layer-Dependent Magnetic Domains in Atomically Thin Fe5GeTe2

“…24 , 62 Furthermore, defects in CrBr 3 have been found to pin domains, resulting in isolated magnetic bubbles. 13 Although it is unclear why such defects would result in a thickness dependence, they cannot be excluded, due to their high prevalence and pronounced effects on the magnetism. In addition, stacking faults along the c -axis of exfoliated flakes 6 , 49 would break the inversion symmetry between adjacent vdW layers, 19 , 58 which may induce a DMI.…”

“… 10 In such cases, the antisymmetric exchange interaction, the so-called Dzyalozhinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI), plays a key role in the skyrmion stabilization. 11 In principle, a variety of interactions, such as the dipolar interaction 12 and ferroelectric coupling, 13 lend multiple degrees of freedom to stabilize and move skyrmions in 2D magnets.…”

Emerging Low‐Dimensional Heterostructure Devices for Neuromorphic Computing

“…The magnetoresistance effect in these heterostructures is mainly used for probing the resulting magnetization state with low resistance, leading to large power consumption in using current summation for vector–matrix multiplication operations. To solve this issue, it is important to explore the unique properties of vdW heterostructure [ 111,112 ] and develop alternative mechanisms [ 113 ] beyond conventional method to measure the resistance. For neuromorphic optoelectronic device applications, although a few types of low‐dimensional heterostructures have been used for emulation of the sensory neurons and synapses, this field remains in its infancy and more diverse applications are required to be explored by designing emerging low‐dimensional heterostructures.…”