Imaging Skyrmions in a van der Waals Magnetic Heterostructure with Magnetic Force Microscopy

Magnetic Skyrmions are spatial spin textures with non-trivial topology. Its formation typically originates from the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) which requires strong spin-orbit coupling and broken inversion symmetry. Recent developments of van der Waals (vdW) magnetic materials provide new opportunities to engineer DMI through interface effects. In this talk, we discuss our recent studies on vdW heterostructures of Fe3GeTe2 (FGT) and Cr2Ge2Te6 (CGT), both of which exhibit spin-orbit coupling and their heterostructure interface naturally breaks the inversion symmetry. We employ magnetic force microscopy (MFM) to image the magnetic domains and observe a periodic lattice of regularly spaced Skyrmion-like features that occur at both the CGT and FGT sides of the heterostructure below their respective magnetic transition temperatures. The MFM results are corroborated by the topological Hall effect observed in transport. Our results show promises for Skyrmionic devices based on vdW heterostructures hosting multiple Skyrmion phases.