Lattice‐Driven Topological Spin Textures in Cr <sub>2</sub> Ge <sub>2</sub> Te <sub>6</sub> Single Crystals
ABSTRACT Owing to their unique crystal structures, van der Waals (vdW) materials provide a versatile platform for exploring emergent physical phenomena and enabling next‐generation electronic and spintronic applications. However, the direct correlations between vdW crystal and intrinsic properties, such as magnetism, remain largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrate that a variety of structure‐correlated topological spin textures, characterized by highly regular shapes ranging from triangles to octagons and arranged in periodic patterns, can be induced in vdW crystals. Owing to their well‐resolved boundaries, the entire evolution of the quasiparticle characteristics of the topological structures, including creation, structural distortions, and collision were unambiguously revealed. More importantly, it was found that the topological annihilation occurs in an explosive manner, providing direct confirmation of the quasiparticle nature at the scale of a single magnetic unit. Simulations reveal that their formation arises from the interplay between uniaxial anisotropy and dipolar interactions, further modulated by the lattice background. These findings uncover a previously unrecognized structure‐property relationship in vdW magnets and open avenues for designing and tunning of new topological spin textures.
Authors
- Yifan Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4082-5379)
- Yongcheng Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4047-5388)
- Qiyuan Feng
- Wenjie Meng
- Z. Li
- Yubin Hou
- Yuying Bai
- Qingyou Lu
- Aile Wang
- Li Pi
- Wei Tong
- Xuan Luo
- Shuai Dong
- Mangyuan Ma
- Fu‐Hua Sun
- Yalin Lu
- Caihong Xie
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Hefei University (CN)
- High Magnetic Field Laboratory (CN)
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures (CN)
- Institute of Semiconductors (CN)
- Institute of Solid State Physics (CN)
- Hubei Normal University (CN)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Published
- 2026-02-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.74354
- Primary Topic
- 2D Materials and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- National Key Research and Development Program of China