Controlling bimerons as skyrmion analogues by ferroelectric polarization in 2D van der Waals multiferroic heterostructures.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33230183.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-19779-6 and PMC identifier 7683542.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
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/In<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> 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 In<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub>. More importantly, magnetic skyrmions in the bimerons form have been discovered in the LaCl/In<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> 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.