Localized Spin Textures Stabilized by Geometry-Induced Strain in 2D Magnet Fe<sub>3</sub>GeTe<sub>2</sub>.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40534280.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1002/adma.202506279 and PMC identifier 12447047.
- 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
Strain engineering promises to enable manipulation and control of the properties of exfoliated flakes of 2D van der Waals (vdW) ferromagnets for spintronic applications. However, while previous studies of strain effects have focused on global properties, the impact on local magnetic spin textures remains unexplored. Here, manipulation of magnetism in the 2D ferromagnet Fe<sub>3</sub>GeTe<sub>2</sub> (FGT) is demonstrated using geometry-induced strain. Employing scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM), the effects of spatially varying strain profiles on the magnetic order of FGT sheets stamped onto micropillar arrays are directly visualized. It is found that the in-plane strain components, with magnitudes <0.5%, locally elevate the Curie temperature of FGT by 10 K, stabilizing magnetic domains near the pillar corners. These domains include skyrmions and higher-order topological spin textures such as skyrmioniums and skyrmion bags. The possibility to locally seed and control topological spin textures via strain opens new avenues for future spin-based information technologies.