Skyrmionic magnetic states are promising in advanced spintronics. This topic is experiencing recent progress in 2D magnets, with, for example, a near 300 K Curie temperature observed in Fe3 GeTe2 . However, despite previous studies reporting skyrmions in Fe3 GeTe2 , such a system remains elusive, since it has been reported to host either Néel-type or Bloch-type textures, while a net Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) cannot occur in this compound for symmetry reasons. It is thus desirable to develop an accurate model to deeply understand Fe3 GeTe2 . Here, a newly developed method adopting spin invariants is applied to build a first-principle-based Hamiltonian, which predicts colorful topological defects assembled from the unit of Bloch lines, and reveals the critical role of specific forms of fourth-order interactions in Fe3 GeTe2 . Rather than the DMI, it is the multiple fourth-order interactions, with symmetry and spin-orbit couplings considered, that stabilize both Néel-type and Bloch-type skyrmions, as well as antiskyrmions, without any preference for clockwise versus counterclockwise spin rotation. This study also demonstrates that spin invariants can be used as a general approach to study complex magnetic interactions.
Keywords: Fe 3GeTe 2; first-principle-based effective Hamiltonian; fourth order interactions; spin invariants; topological defects.
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