Controlling bimerons as skyrmion analogues by ferroelectric polarization in 2D van der Waals multiferroic heterostructures

Abstract

Atom-thick van der Waals heterostructures with nontrivial physical properties tunable via the magnetoelectric coupling effect are highly desirable for the future advance of multiferroic devices. In this work on LaCl/In2Se3 heterostructure consisting of a 2D ferromagnetic layer and a 2D ferroelectric layer, reversible switch of the easy axis and the Curie temperature of the magnetic LaCl layer has been enabled by switching of ferroelectric polarization in In2Se3. More importantly, magnetic skyrmions in the bimerons form have been discovered in the LaCl/In2Se3 heterostructure and can be driven by an electric current. The creation and annihilation of bimerons in LaCl magnetic nanodisks were achieved by polarization switching. It thus proves to be a feasible approach to achieve purely electric control of skyrmions in 2D van der Waals heterostructures. Such nonvolatile and tunable magnetic skyrmions are promising candidates for information carriers in future data storage and logic devices operated under small electrical currents.

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

“…Utilizing an outofplane electric polarization of a 2D fer roelectrics, instead of a tunneling current, to write and erase skyrmion may reduce energy dissipation in skyrmionbased devices. [33,34] To realize such ferroelectric control, we attach a CuInP 2 S 6 monolayer to the WTe 2 /CrCl 3 HS. The ferroelectric polarization of CuInP 2 S 6 can be switched by the application of an electric field, as shown in Figure 6a.…”

Opportunities in electrically tunable 2D materials beyond graphene: Recent progress and future outlook

“…[462] A recent experiment demonstrated that the magnetic skyrmions can also exist in the form of bimerons in the vdW LaCl/In2Se3 heterostructure and can be manipulated by switching the polarization in In2Se3 using electric fields. [463] Owing to the low Curie temperatures of the so far investigated 2D magnetic materials, skyrmion systems can only be stabilized at low temperatures thus far, limiting the practical applications of these systems. Therefore, further efforts to stabilize skyrmions in 2D magnetic materials at room temperature without an external applied magnetic field and their efficient manipulation under external electric fields are desired.…”

Structural reconstruction and anisotropic conductance in 4f-ferromagnetic monolayer

“…It is noteworthy that most known 2D magnets, no matter experimentally verified or theoretical predicted, are based on spin moments of 3d electrons, whose orbitals are spatially localized with strong Hubbard correlation [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Apart from these transition metal compounds with unpaired 3d electrons, rare earth compounds with unpaired 4f electrons also play a significant role in modern magnets.…”