Assembling Diverse Skyrmionic Phases in Fe3GeTe2 Monolayers

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 Fe3GeTe2. However, despite previous studies reporting skyrmions in Fe3GeTe2, such a system remains elusive, since it has been reported to host either Neel-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 Fe3GeTe2. 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 Fe3GeTe2. Rather than the DMI, it is the multiple fourth-order interactions, with symmetry and spin-orbit couplings considered, that stabilize both Neel-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.

Automated summary

This study develops an accurate model to understand the magnetic states in Fe3GeTe2, and reveals the critical role of multiple fourth-order interactions, including symmetry and spin-orbit couplings, in stabilizing different types of skyrmions.