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Emergent giant topological Hall effect in twisted Fe3GeTe2 metallic system
Hyuncheol Kim1,2,3, Kai-Xuan Zhang4,5,6,7, Yu-Hang Li8
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
Nature Communications
|February 19, 2026
Summary
Researchers discovered a giant topological Hall effect in twisted Fe3GeTe2, even with preserved global inversion symmetry. This emergent phenomenon occurs at specific "magic" twist angles, driven by skyrmion lattices.
Area of Science:
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Materials Science
- Spintronics
Background:
- The topological Hall effect (THE) probes topological properties of magnetic materials via electron interactions with magnetic textures.
- Typically, THE requires broken global inversion symmetry, often stabilized by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions (DMI).
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the emergent topological Hall effect in twisted Fe3GeTe2 metallic systems.
- To understand the mechanism behind THE in a system that preserves global inversion symmetry.
Main Methods:
- Experimental synthesis and characterization of twisted Fe3GeTe2.
- Measurement of the topological Hall effect across varying twist angles.
- Micromagnetic simulations to elucidate the underlying magnetic texture formation.
Main Results:
- Discovery of an emergent giant topological Hall effect in twisted Fe3GeTe2.
- THE observed exclusively within a narrow window of "magic" twist angles (0.45°–0.75°).
- Micromagnetic simulations indicate the THE originates from a skyrmion lattice induced by local symmetry breaking and alternating DMI.
Conclusions:
- Twisted Fe3GeTe2 exhibits an emergent giant topological Hall effect, challenging the conventional requirement of broken global inversion symmetry.
- The effect is tunable via specific twist angles, demonstrating control over topological magnetic textures.
- This system offers a promising platform for developing novel spintronic devices utilizing topological magnetic phenomena.
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