Elusive Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in monolayer Fe3GeTe2

Abstract

Using symmetry analysis and density functional theory calculations, we uncover the nature of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in monolayer Fe3GeTe2. We show that while such an interaction might result in small distortions of the magnetic texture in the short range, in the long range it favors in-plane Néel spin spirals along equivalent directions of the crystal structure. Whereas our results show that the observed Néel skyrmions cannot be explained by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction at the monolayer level, they suggest that a canted magnetic texture shall arise at the boundary of Fe3GeTe2 nanoflakes or nanoribbons and, most interestingly, that homochiral planar magnetic textures could be stabilized.