- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review X

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Controllable Highly Oriented Skyrmion Track Array in Bulk Fe3GaTe2

Yunhao Wang1,2,*, Shiyu Zhu1,2,*,†, Chensong Hua3,*, Guojing Hu1, Linxuan Li2, Senhao Lv1, Jianfeng Guo1, Jiawei Hu1,2, Runnong Zhou1,2 et al.

Zizhao Gong1, Chengmin Shen1,2, Zhihai Cheng4, Jinan Shi2, Wu Zhou2, Haitao Yang1,2, Weichao Yu3,‡, Jiang Xiao3, and Hong-Jun Gao1,2,5,§

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: syzhu@iphy.ac.cn
  • ‡Contact author: wcyu@fudan.edu.cn
  • §Contact author: hjgao@iphy.ac.cn
PDF

Phys. Rev. X 15, 021032 – Published 28 April, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.15.021032

Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions are emerging as promising candidates for next-generation information technologies, while the realization of scalable skyrmion lattices with tailored configurations is essential for advancing fundamental skyrmion physics and developing future applications. Here we achieved the controllable generation and regulation of a large-area, highly oriented skyrmion track array (STA) in ferromagnet Fe3GaTe2 using a vector-magnetic-field manipulation technique. The orientation and ordering of STA, along with the types and density of skyrmions, are precisely controlled by modulating parameters during the manipulation. The critical roles of in-plane magnetic fields and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in STA generation is further confirmed by micromagnetic simulation. Our findings develop a strategy for engineering large-area and highly oriented skyrmion configurations, offering a new pathway for the future application of next-generation spintronic and information technologies.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Popular Summary

Magnetic skyrmions—tiny, swirling spin patterns protected by their topological nature—hold immense promise for revolutionizing energy-efficient computing and data storage. However, the challenge of creating large-scale, ordered arrangements of these nanoscale textures has limited their practical use. In this work, we demonstrate a breakthrough: the controlled creation of skyrmion track arrays (STAs)—narrow tracks that direct skyrmions along predetermined paths—over distances of hundreds of micrometers in the bulk ferromagnet Fe3GaTe2. By employing an innovative magnetic field strategy, we can precisely adjust the orientation, density, and stability of these skyrmion chains, providing a scalable method for their integration into future technologies.

By combining out-of-plane and in-plane magnetic fields, we convert disordered magnetic domains into highly ordered STAs. Adjusting the direction and strength of the magnetic fields grants us unprecedented control over skyrmion alignment. Magnetic force microscopy identifies two distinct types of skyrmions: one formed from splitting magnetic stripes and another generated from fragmented structures under strong in-plane fields. Simulations confirm that the interactions between the material’s intrinsic magnetic properties and the applied fields drive this process, enabling the formation of stable STAs even at room temperature.

This work paves the way for the development of ultracompact memory and logic devices using skyrmions. Future studies could explore how these arrays respond to electrical currents or adapt to different materials, potentially leading to faster, low-power electronics. By bridging fundamental physics with practical engineering, our findings mark a crucial step toward harnessing skyrmions for real-world applications.

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (47)

  1. A. Fert, V. Cros, and J. Sampaio, Skyrmions on the track, Nat. Nanotechnol. 8, 152 (2013).
  2. S. Mühlbauer, B. Binz, F. Jonietz, C. Pfleiderer, A. Rosch, A. Neubauer, R. Georgii, and P. Böni, Skyrmion lattice in a chiral magnet, Science 323, 915 (2009).
  3. X. Z. Yu, Y. Onose, N. Kanazawa, J. H. Park, J. H. Han, Y. Matsui, N. Nagaosa, and Y. Tokura, Real-space observation of a two-dimensional skyrmion crystal, Nature (London) 465, 901 (2010).
  4. S. Seki, X. Z. Yu, S. Ishiwata, and Y. Tokura, Observation of skyrmions in a multiferroic material, Science 336, 198 (2012).
  5. T. Kurumaji, T. Nakajima, M. Hirschberger, A. Kikkawa, Y. Yamasaki, H. Sagayama, H. Nakao, Y. Taguchi, T. Arima, and Y. Tokura, Skyrmion lattice with a giant topological Hall effect in a frustrated triangular-lattice magnet, Science 365, 914 (2019).
  6. L. Powalla et al., Seeding and emergence of composite skyrmions in a van der Waals magnet, Adv. Mater. 35, 2208930 (2023).
  7. W. Jiang et al., Blowing magnetic skyrmion bubbles, Science 349, 283 (2015).
  8. V. T. Pham et al., Fast current-induced skyrmion motion in synthetic antiferromagnets, Science 384, 307 (2024).
  9. A. Soumyanarayanan et al., Tunable room-temperature magnetic skyrmions in Ir/Fe/Co/Pt multilayers, Nat. Mater. 16, 898 (2017).
  10. A.-O. Mandru, O. Y𝚤ld𝚤r𝚤m, R. Tomasello, P. Heistracher, M. Penedo, A. Giordano, D. Suess, G. Finocchio, and H. J. Hug, Coexistence of distinct skyrmion phases observed in hybrid ferromagnetic/ferrimagnetic multilayers, Nat. Commun. 11, 6365 (2020).
  11. H. Du, J. P. DeGrave, F. Xue, D. Liang, W. Ning, J. Yang, M. Tian, Y. Zhang, and S. Jin, Highly stable skyrmion state in helimagnetic MnSi nanowires, Nano Lett. 14, 2026 (2014).
  12. N. Mathur, F. S. Yasin, M. J. Stolt, T. Nagai, K. Kimoto, H. Du, M. Tian, Y. Tokura, X. Yu, and S. Jin, In-plane magnetic field-driven creation and annihilation of magnetic skyrmion strings in nanostructures, Adv. Funct. Mater. 31, 2008521 (2021).
  13. C. Gong et al., Discovery of intrinsic ferromagnetism in two-dimensional van der Waals crystals, Nature (London) 546, 265 (2017).
  14. B. Huang et al., Layer-dependent ferromagnetism in a van der Waals crystal down to the monolayer limit, Nature (London) 546, 270 (2017).
  15. G. Zhang, F. Guo, H. Wu, X. Wen, L. Yang, W. Jin, W. Zhang, and H. Chang, Above-room-temperature strong intrinsic ferromagnetism in 2D van der Waals Fe3GaTe2 with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, Nat. Commun. 13, 5067 (2022).
  16. W. Li et al., Room-temperature van der Waals ferromagnet switching by spin-orbit torques, Adv. Mater. 35, 2303688 (2023).
  17. Y. Ji et al., Direct observation of room-temperature magnetic skyrmion motion driven by ultra-low current density in van der Waals ferromagnets, Adv. Mater. 36, 2312013 (2024).
  18. Z. Li et al., Room-temperature sub-100 nm Néel-type skyrmions in non-stoichiometric van der Waals ferromagnet Fe3−xGaTe2 with ultrafast laser writability, Nat. Commun. 15, 1017 (2024).
  19. C. Zhang et al., Above-room-temperature chiral skyrmion lattice and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in a van der Waals ferromagnet Fe3−xGaTe2, Nat. Commun. 15, 4472 (2024).
  20. H. Zhang et al., Spin disorder control of topological spin texture, Nat. Commun. 15, 3828 (2024).
  21. X. Lv et al., Distinct skyrmion phases at room temperature in two-dimensional ferromagnet Fe3GaTe2, Nat. Commun. 15, 3278 (2024).
  22. G. Hu et al., Room-temperature antisymmetric magnetoresistance in van der Waals ferromagnet Fe3GaTe2 nanosheets, Adv. Mater. 36, 2403154 (2024).
  23. H. Shi et al., Dynamic behavior of above-room-temperature robust skyrmions in 2D van der Waals magnet, Nano Lett. 24, 11246 (2024).
  24. S. Woo et al., Observation of room-temperature magnetic skyrmions and their current-driven dynamics in ultrathin metallic ferromagnets, Nat. Mater. 15, 501 (2016).
  25. H. Zhang et al., Room-temperature skyrmion lattice in a layered magnet (Fe0.5Co0.5)5GeTe2, Sci. Adv. 8, eabm7103 (2022).
  26. S.-G. Je et al., Creation of magnetic skyrmion bubble lattices by ultrafast laser in ultrathin films, Nano Lett. 18, 7362 (2018).
  27. Y. Guang et al., Creating zero-field skyrmions in exchange-biased multilayers through x-ray illumination, Nat. Commun. 11, 949 (2020).
  28. Y. Guang et al., Electron beam lithography of magnetic skyrmions, Adv. Mater. 32, 2003003 (2020).
  29. Z. Li et al., Electron-assisted generation and straight movement of skyrmion bubble in kagome TbMn6Sn6, Adv. Mater. 36, 2309538 (2024).
  30. N. Romming, C. Hanneken, M. Menzel, J. E. Bickel, B. Wolter, K. Von Bergmann, A. Kubetzka, and R. Wiesendanger, Writing and deleting single magnetic skyrmions, Science 341, 636 (2013).
  31. W. Jiang et al., Direct observation of the skyrmion Hall effect, Nat. Phys. 13, 162 (2017).
  32. G. Yu et al., Room-temperature skyrmion shift device for memory application, Nano Lett. 17, 261 (2017).
  33. C. Song, L. Zhao, J. Liu, and W. Jiang, Experimental realization of a skyrmion circulator, Nano Lett. 22, 9638 (2022).
  34. Z. He et al., Experimental observation of current-driven antiskyrmion sliding in stripe domains, Nat. Mater. 23, 1048 (2024).
  35. Z. Li et al., Field-free topological behavior in the magnetic domain wall of ferrimagnetic GdFeCo, Nat. Commun. 12, 5604 (2021).
  36. Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevX.15.021032 for more details of methods, analysis and extended data.
  37. H. Du et al., Edge-mediated skyrmion chain and its collective dynamics in a confined geometry, Nat. Commun. 6, 8504 (2015).
  38. X. Yu, M. Mostovoy, Y. Tokunaga, W. Zhang, K. Kimoto, Y. Matsui, Y. Kaneko, N. Nagaosa, and Y. Tokura, Magnetic stripes and skyrmions with helicity reversals, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 109, 8856 (2012).
  39. M.-G. Han, J. A. Garlow, Y. Liu, H. Zhang, J. Li, D. DiMarzio, M. W. Knight, C. Petrovic, D. Jariwala, and Y. Zhu, Topological magnetic-spin textures in two-dimensional van der Waals Cr2Ge2Te6, Nano Lett. 19, 7859 (2019).
  40. F. N. Rybakov, A. B. Borisov, S. Blügel, and N. S. Kiselev, New type of stable particlelike states in chiral magnets, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 117201 (2015).
  41. F. Zheng et al., Experimental observation of chiral magnetic bobbers in B20-type FeGe, Nat. Nanotechnol. 13, 451 (2018).
  42. K. Ran, Y. Liu, Y. Guang, D. M. Burn, G. van der Laan, T. Hesjedal, H. Du, G. Yu, and S. Zhang, Creation of a chiral bobber lattice in helimagnet-multilayer heterostructures, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 017204 (2021).
  43. M. Grelier, F. Godel, A. Vecchiola, S. Collin, K. Bouzehouane, A. Fert, V. Cros, and N. Reyren, Three-dimensional skyrmionic cocoons in magnetic multilayers, Nat. Commun. 13, 6843 (2022).
  44. A. K. Gopi, A. K. Srivastava, A. K. Sharma, A. Chakraborty, S. Das, H. Deniz, A. Ernst, B. K. Hazra, H. L. Meyerheim, and S. S. P. Parkin, Thickness-tunable zoology of magnetic spin textures observed in Fe5GeTe2, ACS Nano 18, 5535 (2024).
  45. A. Chakraborty et al., Magnetic skyrmions in a thickness tunable 2D ferromagnet from a defect driven Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, Adv. Mater. 34, 2108637 (2022).
  46. J. Masell, X. Yu, N. Kanazawa, Y. Tokura, and N. Nagaosa, Combing the helical phase of chiral magnets with electric currents, Phys. Rev. B 102, 180402(R) (2020).
  47. V. Ukleev, Y. Yamasaki, O. Utesov, K. Shibata, N. Kanazawa, N. Jaouen, H. Nakao, Y. Tokura, and T. H. Arima, Metastable solitonic states in the strained itinerant helimagnet FeGe, Phys. Rev. B 102, 014416 (2020).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. X 15, 021032– Published 28 April, 2025
  • Received 14 November 2024
  • Revised 12 February 2025
  • Accepted 17 March 2025
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation