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The discovery of an ever increasing family of atomic layered magnetic materials, together with the already established vast catalogue of strong spin-orbit coupling and topological systems, calls for some guiding principles to tailor and optimize novel spin transport and optical properties at their interfaces. Here we focus on the latest developments in both fields that have brought them closer together and make them ripe for future fruitful synergy. After outlining fundamentals on van der Waals magnetism and spin-orbit coupling effects, we discuss how their coexistence, manipulation and competition could ultimately establish new ways to engineer robust spin textures and drive the generation and dynamics of spin current and magnetization switching in 2D materials-based van der Waals heterostructures. Grounding our analysis on existing experimental results and theoretical considerations, we draw a prospective analysis about how intertwined magnetism and spin-orbit torque phenomena combine at interfaces with well-defined symmetries, and how this dictates the nature and figures-of-merit of spin-orbit torque and angular momentum transfer. This will serve as a guiding role in designing future non-volatile memory devices that utilize the unique properties of 2D materials with the spin degree of freedom.

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We study the magnetisation dynamics of a bulk single crystal Cr2Ge2Te6 (CGT), by means of broadband ferromagnetic resonance (FMR), for temperatures from 60 K down to 2 K. We determine the Kittel relations of the fundamental FMR mode as a function of frequency and static magnetic field for the magnetocrystalline easy -and hard -axis. The uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant is extracted and compared with the saturation magnetisation, when normalised with their low temperature values. The ratios show a clear temperature dependence when plotted in the logarithmic scale, which departs from the predicted Callen-Callen power law fit of a straight line, where the scaling exponent n, Ku(T ) ∝ [Ms(T )/Ms(2 K)] n , contradicts the expected value of 3 for uniaxial anisotropy. Additionally, the spectroscopic g-factor for both the magnetic easy -and hard -axis exhibits a temperature dependence, with an inversion between 20 K and 30 K, suggesting an influence by orbital angular momentum. Finally, we qualitatively discuss the observation of multi-domain resonance phenomena in the FMR spectras, at magnetic fields below the saturation magnetisation.arXiv:1903.00584v2 [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Anticrossing behavior between magnons in a non-collinear chiral magnet Cu2OSeO3 and a twomode X-band microwave resonator was studied in the temperature range 5-100 K. In the fieldinduced ferrimagnetic phase, we observed a strong coupling regime between magnons and two microwave cavity modes with a cooperativity reaching 3600. In the conical phase, cavity modes are dispersively coupled to a fundamental helimagnon mode, and we demonstrate that the magnetic phase diagram of Cu2OSeO3 can be reconstructed from the measurements of the cavity resonance frequency. In the helical phase, a hybridized state of a higher-order helimagnon mode and a cavity mode -a helimagnon polariton -was found. Our results reveal a new class of magnetic systems where strong coupling of microwave photons to non-trivial spin textures can be observed.

Topologically protected nanoscale spin textures, known as magnetic skyrmions, possess particlelike properties and feature emergent magnetism effects. In bulk cubic helimagnets, distinct skyrmion resonant modes are already identified using a technique such as ferromagnetic resonance in spintronics. However, direct light-matter coupling between microwave photons and skyrmion resonance modes still needs to be demonstrated. Utilizing two distinct cavity systems, we observe a direct interaction between the cavity resonant mode and two resonant skyrmion modes, the counterclockwise gyration and breathing modes, in bulk Cu 2 OSeO 3 . For both resonant modes, we find the largest coupling strength at 57 K indicated by an enhancement of the cavity linewidth at the degeneracy point. We study the effective coupling strength as a function of temperature within the expected skyrmion phase. We attribute the maximum in effective coupling strength to the presence of a large number of skyrmions, and correspondingly to a completely stable skyrmion lattice. Our experimental findings indicate that the coupling between photons and resonant modes of magnetic skyrmions depends on the relative density of these topological particles instead of the pure spin number in the system.

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) magnets represent one of the most promising horizons for energy-efficient spintronic applications because their broad range of electronic, magnetic and topological properties. However, little is known about the interplay between light and spin properties in vdW layers. Here we show that ultrafast laser excitation can not only generate different type of spin textures in CrGeTe3 vdW magnets but also induce a reversible transformation between them in a topological toggle switch mechanism. Our atomistic spin dynamics simulations and wide-field Kerr microscopy measurements show that different textures can be generated via high-intense laser pulses within the picosecond regime. The phase transformation between the different topological spin textures is obtained as additional laser pulses are applied to the system where the polarisation and final state of the spins can be controlled by external magnetic fields. Our results indicate laser-driven spin textures on 2D magnets as a pathway towards reconfigurable topological architectures at the atomistic level.

Recently, it has been shown that the chiral magnetic insulator Cu2OSeO3 hosts skyrmions in two separated pockets in temperature and magnetic field phase space. It has also been shown that the predominant stabilization mechanism for the low-temperature skyrmions (LTS) phase is the crystalline anisotropy in contrast to temperature fluctuations, which stabilize the well established high-temperature skyrmion (HTS) lattice. Here, we report on the gigahertz dynamics in the LTS phase in Cu2OSeO3. The LTS phase is populated via a field cycling protocol with the static magnetic field applied parallel to the h100i crystalline direction of plate and cuboid-shaped bulk crystals. By analyzing temperature-dependent broadband spectroscopy data, clear evidence of low-temperature skyrmion excitations with clockwise (CW), counterclockwise (CCW), and breathing mode (BR) character at temperatures below T = 40 K are shown. We find that the modes’ intensities can be tuned with the number of field-cycles below the saturation field, and by tracking the resonance frequencies, the LTS phase diagram can be established. From our experiments, we conclude that the LTS phase is well separated from the high-temperature phase. Furthermore, by monitoring the strength of the observed hybridization between a dark CW mode and the BR as a function of temperature for the two differently shaped crystals, we unambiguously conclude that the magnetocrystalline anisotropy governs the hybridization.