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Microscopic Evidence of Spin-Driven Multiferroicity and Topological Spin Textures in Monolayer NiI_{2}
Haitao Wang1, Tianxing Jiang1, Weiyi Pan2
1Fudan University, Department of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics and Advanced Material Laboratory, Shanghai, 200438, China.
Abstract:
In type-II multiferroics, noncollinear spin textures are expected to induce electric polarization directly, leading to strong magnetoelectric coupling. Realizing such spin-driven multiferroicity in two-dimensional (2D) systems, and elucidating the interplay between local spins and electric polarization, are of both fundamental and technological importance. Here, using vectorial spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy, we investigated the spin-driven multiferroicity in monolayer NiI_{2} at atomic scale. We identify a canted spin-spiral state with fully determined spin rotation plane, accompanied by a 2Q charge modulation. At spin-spiral domain walls, we discover topological spin textures that are composed of meron-antimeron pairs. These textures are associated with a distinct charge pattern and notable band shifts, indicating local bound charges induced by variations of ferroelectricity at domain wall. Our observations are well captured by a realistic spin model incorporating Kitaev interactions and a generalized spin-current model of type-II multiferroicity. The findings provide microscopic evidence of spin-driven multiferroicity in an extreme 2D system and establish a platform for low-dissipation, electric-field control of topological spin textures.
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