Ferroelectric-controlled Bloch skyrmions in a CrTe2/In2Se3 heterostructure: A first-principles and atomistic spin-dynamics study

Electrically switchable magnetic skyrmions in van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures offer a promising route to nonvolatile, field-free spintronic devices. Here, we report ferroelectric control stabilization of Bloch skyrmions in a CrTe2/In2Se3 heterostructure. First-principles calculations show that the downward-polarization in α-In2Se3 leads to appropriate conditions for stabilizing Bloch skyrmions in the CrTe2 layer, namely, the ratio between the Heisenberg exchange (J) and interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI, D), D/J > 0.10, and sufficiently weak easy-plane magnetic anisotropy. This is confirmed by atomistic spin-dynamics simulations, showing that the topological phase boundary persists up to 160 K and exhibits hysteretic nucleation and annihilation under field cycling. Current-driven simulations on racetrack device based on the CrTe2/In2Se3 interface show linear transport of skyrmions with negligible transverse displacement under a threshold current density of Jᴄ ≈ 7.9 × 108 A m⁻2. These results suggest CrTe2/In2Se3 as a candidate system for electrically programmable Bloch-skyrmion states.