Abstract
Non-coplanar spin textures with scalar spin chirality can generate an effective magnetic field that deflects the motion of charge carriers, resulting in a topological Hall effect (THE)1,2,3. However, spin chirality fluctuations in two-dimensional ferromagnets with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy have not been considered so far. Here, we report evidence of spin chirality fluctuations by probing the THE above the Curie temperature in two different ferromagnetic ultra-thin films, SrRuO3 and V-doped Sb2Te3. The temperature, magnetic field, thickness and carrier-type dependence of the THE signal, along with Monte Carlo simulations, suggest that spin chirality fluctuations are a common phenomenon in two-dimensional ferromagnets with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Our results open a path for exploring spin chirality with topological Hall transport in two-dimensional magnets and beyond4,5,6,7.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Code availability
The code for the MC simulations is available from M.W.D. and D.X. on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to R. Swendsen for many useful discussions on MC simulations. The work at Rutgers was supported by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, US Department of Energy under award no. DE-SC0018153. The work at CMU was supported by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, US Department of Energy under award no. DE-SC0012509. The work at UMD was supported under the Cooperative Research Agreement between the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, award no. 70NANB14H209, through the University of Maryland. The work at U. Twente was supported by Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek through grant no. 13HTSM01. The work at Penn State was supported by ARO Young Investigator Program award no. W911NF1810198. C.-Z.C. acknowledges support of an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.
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W.Wu conceived and supervised the project. Z.L., J.W., G.K. and G.R. synthesized the SRO samples and performed X-ray diffraction. Y.Z. and C.-Z.C. synthesized the VST samples. W.Wang performed the magnetotransport experiments and analysed the data. M.W.D. and D.X. performed the MC simulations. W.Wang, W.Wu, M.W.D. and D.X. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the data and contributed to the manuscript.
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Supplementary Figs. 1–22, Supplementary Notes A–O and supplementary refs. 1–11.
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Wang, W., Daniels, M.W., Liao, Z. et al. Spin chirality fluctuation in two-dimensional ferromagnets with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Nat. Mater. 18, 1054–1059 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0454-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0454-9
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