Above-room-temperature chiral skyrmion lattice and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in a van der Waals ferromagnet Fe_3-xGaTe₂.

ABSTRACT: Skyrmions in existing 2D van der Waals (vdW) materials have primarily been limited to cryogenic temperatures, and the underlying physical mechanism of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI), a crucial ingredient for stabilizing chiral skyrmions, remains inadequately explored. Here, we report the observation of Néel-type skyrmions in a vdW ferromagnet Fe_3-xGaTe₂ above room temperature. Contrary to previous assumptions of centrosymmetry in Fe_3-xGaTe₂, the atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals that the off-centered Fe_ΙΙ atoms break the spatial inversion symmetry, rendering it a polar metal. First-principles calculations further elucidate that the DMI primarily stems from the Te sublayers through the Fert

SUBMITTER: Zhang C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11127993 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature