Strain-Induced Intrinsic Antiferromagnetic Skyrmions in Two-Dimensional Janus Magnets

Abstract

Antiferromagnetic (AFM) skyrmions, which are resistant to both the skyrmion Hall effect and external magnetic perturbations, are expected to be promising candidates for next-generation spintronics devices. Despite being observed in bulk materials and synthetic AFM layered systems, the existence of intrinsic AFM skyrmions within single magnetic layers, which offer potential advantages for spintronic device fabrication, has remained elusive. In this work, taking monolayer CrSi(Te,Se)$_{3}$ as a representative system, we demonstrate the emergence of intrinsic AFM skyrmions in two-dimensional Janus magnets. It is found that under moderate compressive strain, the interplay between considerable Dyzaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and the strain-induced AFM Heisenberg exchange interaction in monolayer CrSi(Te,Se)$_{3}$ would give rise to the emergence of intrinsic AFM skyrmions assembled from AFM spin spirals. Moreover, the application of an external magnetic field could trigger the emergence of AFM merons as well as a canted AFM state. Our findings propose a feasible approach for achieving intrinsic AFM skyrmions in realistic systems, which paves the way for developments in AFM topological spintronics devices.