Magnetic skyrmions in atomic thin CrI₃ monolayer

In this letter, we report on the visualization of topologically protected spin textures, in the form of magnetic skyrmions, in recently discovered monoatomic-thin two-dimensional CrI₃. By combining density functional theory and atomistic spin dynamic simulation, we demonstrate that an application of an out-of-plane electric field to the CrI₃ lattice favors the formation of sub-10 nm skyrmions at 0 K temperature. The spin texture arises due to a strong correlation between magnetocrystalline anisotropy, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, and the vertical electric field, whose shape and size could be tuned with the magnetic field. Such a finding will open avenues for atomic-scale quantum engineering and precision sensing.