Evidence for Magnetic Skyrmions at the Interface of Ferromagnet/Topological-Insulator Heterostructures

Junshu Chen; Linjing Wang; Meng Zhang; Liang Zhou; Runnan Zhang; Lipeng Jin; Xuesen Wang; Hailang Qin; Yang Qiu; Jiawei Mei; Fei Ye; Bin Xi; Hongtao He; Bin Li; Gan Wang

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b02191

Evidence for Magnetic Skyrmions at the Interface of Ferromagnet/Topological-Insulator Heterostructures

Nano Lett. 2019 Sep 11;19(9):6144-6151. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b02191. Epub 2019 Aug 27.

Authors

Junshu Chen^{1

2}, Linjing Wang¹, Meng Zhang¹, Liang Zhou¹, Runnan Zhang¹, Lipeng Jin³, Xuesen Wang², Hailang Qin¹, Yang Qiu⁴, Jiawei Mei¹, Fei Ye¹, Bin Xi³, Hongtao He¹, Bin Li^{1

5}, Gan Wang^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, and Department of Physics , Southern University of Science and Technology , Shenzhen 518055 , China.
² Department of Physics , National University of Singapore , 2 Science Drive 3 , Singapore 117551 , Singapore.
³ College of Physics Science and Technology , Yangzhou University , Yangzhou 225002 , China.
⁴ Materials Characterization and Preparation Center , Southern University of Science and Technology , Shenzhen 518055 , China.
⁵ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Quantum Science and Engineering , Shenzhen 518055 , China.

PMID: 31438678
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b02191

Abstract

The heterostructures of the ferromagnet (Cr₂Te₃) and topological insulator (Bi₂Te₃) have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The topological Hall effect as evidence of the existence of magnetic skyrmions has been observed in the samples in which Cr₂Te₃ was grown on top of Bi₂Te₃. Detailed structural characterizations have unambiguously revealed the presence of intercalated Bi bilayer nanosheets right at the interface of those samples. The atomistic spin-dynamics simulations have further confirmed the existence of magnetic skyrmions in such systems. The heterostructures of ferromagnet and topological insulator that host magnetic skyrmions may provide an important building block for next generation of spintronics devices.

Keywords: Bi nanosheets; BiTe; CrTe; heterostructures; magnetic skyrmions; topological Hall effect.