Topological Hall effect in bulk ferromagnet Cr${}_2$Te${}_3$ embedded with black-phosphorus-like bismuth nanosheets

Abstract

We implement the molecular beam epitaxy method to embed the black-phosphorus-like bismuth nanosheets into the bulk ferromagnet Cr${}_2$Te${}_3$. As a typical surfactant, bismuth lowers the surface tensions and mediates the layer-by-layer growth of Cr${}_2$Te${}_3$. Meanwhile, the bismuth atoms precipitate into black-phosphorus-like nanosheets with the lateral size of several tens of nanometers. In Cr${}_2$Te${}_3$ embedded with Bi-nanosheets, we observe simultaneously a large topological Hall effect together with the magnetic susceptibility plateau and magnetoresistivity anomaly. As a control experiment, none of these signals is observed in the pristine Cr${}_2$Te${}_3$ samples. Therefore, the Bi-nanosheets serve as seeds of topological Hall effect induced by non-coplanar magnetic textures planted into Cr${}_2$Te${}_3$. Our experiments demonstrate a new method to generates a large topological Hall effect by planting strong spin-orbit couplings into the traditional ferromagnet, which may have potential applications in spintronics.