Electrically switchable Rashba-type Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and skyrmion in two-dimensional magnetoelectric multiferroics

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that two-dimensional magnetoelectric multiferroics can host electrically controllable topological magnetic structures like skyrmions, driven by Rashba-induced Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, with potential applications in spintronics.

Contribution

It reveals the electric control of DMI and skyrmion chirality in 2D multiferroics using first-principles calculations, introducing a new pathway for topological magnetism manipulation.

Findings

Strong DMI can be induced by electric polarization via Rashba effect.

Sub-10 nm skyrmions can be stabilized in 2D multiferroics with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.

Electric fields can manipulate skyrmion chirality and polarity.

Abstract

Realizing topological magnetism and its electric control are intensive topics in the spintronics due to their promising applications in information storage and logic technologies. Here we unveil that both can be achieved in the two-dimensional (2D) magnetoelectric multiferroics. Using first-principles calculations, we show that strong Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI), which is the key ingredient for the formation of exotic chiral magnetism, could be induced in 2D multiferroics with vertical electric polarization via Rashba effect. We verify that such significant DMI can promote sub-10 nm skyrmion in 2D multiferroics with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy such as CrN monolayer. In addition, the presence of both magnetization and electric polarization in 2D multiferroics provides us unique opportunity for the effective electric control of both strength and chirality of DMI and thereby the topological magnetism. As an example, we introduce the four multiferroic skyrmions with different chirality and polarity that can be manipulated by external field.