Whirling interlayer fields as a source of stable topological order in moiré CrI3

AbstractThe moiré engineering of two-dimensional magnets opens unprecedented opportunities to design novel magnetic states with promises for spintronic device applications. The possibility of stabilizing skyrmions in these materials without chiral spin-orbit couplings or dipolar interactions is yet to be explored. Here, we investigate the formation and control of ground state topological spin textures (TSTs) in moiré $${Cr}{I}_{3}$$ C r I 3 using stochastic Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert simulations. We unveil the emergence of interlayer vortex and antivortex Heisenberg exchange fields, stabilizing spontaneous and field-assisted ground state TSTs with various topologies. The developed study accounts for the full bilayer spin dynamics, thermal fluctuations, and intrinsic spin-orbit couplings. By examining the effect of the Kitaev interaction and the next nearest-neighbor Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction, we propose the latter as the unique spin-orbit coupling mechanism compatible with experiments on monolayer and twisted $${Cr}{I}_{3}$$ C r I 3 . Our findings contribute to the current knowledge about moiré skyrmionics and uncover the nature of spin-orbit coupling in $${Cr}{I}_{3}$$ C r I 3 .