Skyrmionic spin textures in layered magnetic van der Waals family Fe_xGeTe₂

Magnetic skyrmions and bubbles, nanoscopic vortex-like spin textures, have dominated research as they are considered memory bits for future memory devices. Several different crystals and thin film systems have been investigated over the years in search of various skyrmions and bubbles. Recently, a new class of materials, namely 2-dimensional (2D) materials, has gained interest after researchers demonstrated that high-quality monolayers of graphene can be obtained by simple exfoliation of the material. The addition of magnetic van der Waals (vdW) crystals to this family, capable of hosting such spin textures, has opened the door for fundamental research and the possibility of spintronics applications.

In this presentation, I will provide a brief introduction to the field of skyrmionics, followed by a discussion on the experimental realization of such spin textures using Lorentz Transmission Electron Microscopy and Magnetic Force Microscopy techniques. Finally, I will present our results on the investigation of two vdW compounds:Fe₃GeTe₂, which hosts Néel-type skyrmions resulting from a defect-driven Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction (DMI), and Fe₅GeTe₂, which hosts various kinds of spin textures depending upon the sample thickness.