Switching intrinsic magnetic skyrmions with controllable magnetic anisotropy in van der Waals multiferroic heterostructures

Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions, topologically nontrivial whirling spin textures at nanometer scales, have emerged as potential information carriers for spintronic devices. The ability to efficiently create and erase magnetic skyrmions is vital yet challenging for such applications. Based on first-principles studies, we find that switching between intrinsic magnetic skyrmion and high-temperature ferromagnetic states can be achieved in two-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) multiferroic heterostructure CrSeI/In2Te3 by reversing the ferroelectric polarization of In2Te3. The core mechanism of this switching is traced to the controllable magnetic anisotropy of CrSeI influenced by the ferroelectric polarization of In2Te3. We propose a useful descriptor linking the presence of magnetic skyrmions to magnetic parameters, and validate this connection through studies of a variety of similar vdW multiferroic heterostructures. Our work demonstrates that manipulating magnetic skyrmions via tunable magnetic anisotropies in vdW multiferroic heterostructures represents a highly promising and energy-efficient strategy for future development of spintronics.

20 Pages, 3 figures, 1 table; accepted by Nano Letters

References in corpus (10)

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Magnetic Anisotropy in Two-dimensional van der Waals Magnetic Materials and Their Heterostructures: Importance, Mechanisms, and Opportunities
• Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction torques and domain wall dynamics in van der Waals heterostructures
• Above room-temperature two-dimensional ferromagnetic half-metals in Mn-based Janus magnets
• All-electric control of skyrmion-bimeron transition in van der Waals heterostructures
• Control of magnetic transition, metal-semiconductor transition, and magnetic anisotropy in noncentrosymmetric monolayer Cr${}_2$Ge${}_2$Se${}_3$Te${}_3$
• Chromium chalcohalide Janus monolayer ferromagnets with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and high Curie temperature