Interlayer switching of magnetic and electric topological structures in the bilayer van der Waals material NiClBr

Magnetic (M) skyrmions and electric (E) skyrmions attract interest in information storage and logic devices due to their distinct real-space topological properties. This study bases on the magnetoelectric imprint effect to construct a bilayer material NiClBr, enabling mapping between M skyrmions and E skyrmions in adjacent layers. On the one hand, external fields enable interlayer switching between M skyrmions and E skyrmions, along with chirality tuning of M skyrmions. On the other hand, E skyrmions is originated from polar distortion of electron cloud, distinct from traditional atomic displacements. This mechanism enables direct conversion from magnetic signals to electric ones and improve detectability of magnetoelectric signals. It also provides a promising platform for memory devices capable of switching signal layers between magnetic and electric states.