Manipulating two-dimensional magnetic states via electric field and pressure

Hengxing Bao; Hao Tian; Xu Li; Xingyue Ma; Changsong Xu; Yurong Yang; Di Wu

doi:10.1039/d3cp02043f

Manipulating two-dimensional magnetic states via electric field and pressure

Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2023 Aug 23;25(33):22244-22249. doi: 10.1039/d3cp02043f.

Authors

Hengxing Bao^{1

2}, Hao Tian³, Xu Li^{1

2}, Xingyue Ma^{1

2}, Changsong Xu⁴, Yurong Yang^{1

2}, Di Wu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
² Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. yangyr@nju.edu.cn.
³ School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Zhengzhou Normal University, Zhengzhou 450044, China. haotian@zznu.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Computational Physical Sciences (Ministry of Education), Institute of Computational Physical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.

PMID: 37577831
DOI: 10.1039/d3cp02043f

Abstract

Topological spin configurations have been an intriguing topic due to the exotic transport properties and promising applications in spintronic devices. The discovery of two-dimensional (2D) magnetic materials such as CrI₃ provides new platforms for manipulating magnetic structures. Here, by first-principles calculations and Monte Carlo methods, we investigated the exchange interaction and magnetic states of 2D van der Waals ferromagnetic/ferroelectric heterostructure CrI₃/In₂Se₃. By switching the polarization in the ferroelectric In₂Se₃ layer under an electric field and changing the interlayer distance between CrI₃ and In₂Se₃ under pressure, four spin configurations, ferromagnetic states, topological domain wall skyrmions, topological bimerons, and stripe domains can be realized. These striking tunable magnetic states can be understood from the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and single-ion anisotropy parameters being modified by switching the polarization and changing the interlayer distance. Our results of controllable topological/non-topological spin states broaden the spin phenomena and potential of spintronic applications in van der Waals heterostructures.