This project aims to understand and design antiferromagnetic topological spin textures in two-dimensional van der Waals magnets. Antiferromagnetic skyrmions, bimerons, merons, and related quasiparticles are promising information carriers for future spintronic devices because their compensated magnetization suppresses dipolar size limits and the skyrmion Hall effect, while their exchange-enhanced dynamics can enable ultrafast operation. However, such topological magnetism in van der Waals antiferromagnets remains largely unexplored, despite the unique opportunities offered by atomic thickness, stacking and gate tunability, strong spin-orbit coupling, and locally broken inversion symmetry.
The project will combine first-principles electronic structure calculations with atomistic spin model simulations. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations will be used to extract key magnetic interactions, including exchange coupling, magnetic anisotropy, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, and higher-order exchange terms. These parameters will then be mapped onto atomistic spin models to determine equilibrium phase diagrams, thermal stability, and field-, strain-, gating-, and stacking-dependent control of topological textures. Candidate materials will be screened from existing two-dimensional materials databases and further investigated through Monte Carlo and Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert spin-dynamics simulations.
The expected outcome is a set of realistic van der Waals antiferromagnets hosting stable and controllable topological spin textures, together with quantitative predictions for their dynamical response under spin orbit torque or spin Hall torque. The results will provide microscopic design principles for low-power, high-density antiferromagnetic spintronic devices.