Control of stripe, skyrmion and skyrmionium formation in the 2D magnet Fe_3-xGeTe₂ by varying composition

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) magnets have recently emerged as novel skyrmion hosts. This discovery has opened a new material platform for tuning the properties of topological spin textures, such as by exploiting proximity effects induced by stacking of 2D materials into heterostructures, or by directly manipulating the structural composition of the host material. Previous works have considered the effect of varied composition in the bulk crystals of the vdW magnet Fe3-xGeTe2 , but so far the effects on the hosted spin textures have not been thoroughly investigated. In this work, real-space x-ray microscopy is utilized to image magnetic stripe domain, skyrmion and composite skyrmion states in exfoliated flakes of Fe3-xGeTe2 with varying Fe deficiency x. In combination with supporting mean-field and micromagnetic simulations, the significant alterations in the magnetic phase diagrams of the flakes, and thus the stability of the observed spin textures, are revealed. These arise as a result of the varying temperature dependence of the fundamental magnetic properties, which are greater than can be explained by the removal of spins, and are consistent with previously reported changes in the electronic band structure via the Fe deficiency.