Controllable Skyrmion Islands in a Moir\'e Magnet

Abstract

Antiferromagnetic(AFM) skyrmions have been in the spotlight as ideal topological magnetic bits. Although they are topologically protected, they do not exhibit the skyrmion Hall effect unlike the ferromagnetic ones. Thus, AFM skyrmions are considered to provide a better control of the skyrmion's motion due to the absence of the skyrmion Magnus effect. In this work, we propose a possible realization of controllable AFM skyrmions in a twisted Moir\'e magnet. The tunability of Moir\'e materials is not only a good platform for the provision of rich phases, but also for the stabilization of skyrmion phase. We investigate the ground state of twisted bilayer AFM system by solving the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation in a continuum model. We show that the AFM skyrmions are stabilized even in the absence of the external/dipolar magnetic field, as a consequence of the interplay of interlayer coupling, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction and Ising anisotropy. More interestingly, due to the magnetoelectric effect, the application of an external electric field locally stabilizes the skyrmions in the twisted bilayer AFM systems, even in the absence of DM interaction. It also allows the skyrmion helicity to change continuously when both the DM interaction and an electric field are present. We show the phase diagram with respect to the strength of interlayer coupling, the DM interaction and an electric field. Our results suggest the possibility of using AFM skyrmions as stable, controllable topological magnetic bits.