No Arabic abstract
Magnetic skyrmions are promising for building next-generation magnetic memories and spintronic devices due to their stability, small size and the extremely low currents needed to move them. In particular, skyrmion-based racetrack memory is attractive for information technology, where skyrmions are used to store information as data bits instead of traditional domain walls. Here we numerically demonstrate the impacts of skyrmion-skyrmion and skyrmion-edge repulsions on the feasibility of skyrmion-based racetrack memory. The reliable and practicable spacing between consecutive skyrmionic bits on the racetrack as well as the ability to adjust it are investigated. Clogging of skyrmionic bits is found at the end of the racetrack, leading to the reduction of skyrmion size. Further, we demonstrate an effective and simple method to avoid the clogging of skyrmionic bits, which ensures the elimination of skyrmionic bits beyond the reading element. Our results give guidance for the design and development of future skyrmion-based racetrack memory.
A magnetic skyrmion is a topological object that can exist as a solitary embedded in the vast ferromagnetic phase, or coexists with a group of its siblings in various stripy phases as well as skyrmion crystals (SkXs). Isolated skyrmions and skyrmions in an SkX are circular while a skyrmion in other phases is a stripe of various forms. Unexpectedly, the sizes of the three different types of skyrmions depend on material parameters differently. For chiral magnetic films with exchange stiffness constant $A$, the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) strength $D$, and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy $K$, $kappaequivpi^2D^2/(16AK)=1$ separates isolated skyrmions from condensed skyrmion states. In contrast to isolated skyrmions whose size increases with $D/K$ and is insensitive to $kappall1$ and stripe skyrmions whose width increases with $A/D$ and is insensitive to $kappagg1$, the size of skyrmions in SkXs is inversely proportional to the square root of skyrmion number density and decreases with $A/D$. This finding has important implications in our search for stable smaller skyrmions at the room temperature in applications.
A theoretical study of the current-driven dynamics of magnetic skyrmions in disordered perpendicularly-magnetized ultrathin films is presented. The disorder is simulated as a granular structure in which the local anisotropy varies randomly from grain to grain. The skyrmion velocity is computed for different disorder parameters and ensembles. Similar behavior is seen for spin-torques due to in-plane currents and the spin Hall effect, where a pinning regime can be identified at low currents with a transition towards the disorder-free case at higher currents, similar to domain wall motion in disordered films. Moreover, a current-dependent skyrmion Hall effect and fluctuations in the core radius are found, which result from the interaction with the pinning potential.
Real-space topological magnetic structures such as skyrmions and merons are promising candidates for information storage and transport. However, the microscopic mechanisms that control their formation and evolution are still not clear. Here, using in-situ Lorentz transmission electron microscopy, we demonstrate that skyrmion crystals (SkXs) can nucleate, grow, and evolve from the conical phase in the same ways that real nanocrystals form from vapors or solutions. More intriguingly, individual skyrmions can also reproduce by division in a mitosis-like process that allows them to annihilate SkX lattice imperfections, which is not available to crystals made of mass-conserving particles. Combined string method and micromagnetic calculations show that competition between repulsive and attractive interactions between skyrmions governs particle-like SkX growth, but non-conservative SkX growth appears to be defect-mediated. Our results provide insights towards manipulating magnetic topological states by applying established crystal growth theory, adapted to account for the new process of skyrmion mitosis.
Quantization of topological charges determines the various topological spin textures that are expected to play a key role in future spintronic devices. While the magnetic skyrmion with a unit topological charge Q has been extensively studied, spin textures with other integer valued have not been verified well so far. Here, we report the real-space image, creation, and manipulation of a type of multi Q three-dimensional skyrmionic texture, where a circular spin spiral ties a bunch of skyrmion tubes. We define these objects as skyrmion bundles, and show they have arbitrarily integer values Q from negative up to at least 55 in our experiment. These textures behave as quasiparticles in dynamics for the collective motions driven by electric pulses. Similar to the skyrmion, skyrmion bundles with non zero Q exhibit the skyrmion Hall effects with a Hall angle of 62 degree. Of particular interest, the skyrmion bundle with Q = 0 propagates collinearly with respect to the current flow without the skyrmion Hall effect. Our results open a new perspective for possible applications of multi Q magnetic objects in future spintronic devices.
Thermoelectric properties of a model Skyrmion crystal were theoretically investigated, and it was found that its large anomalous Hall conductivity, corresponding to large Chern numbers induced by its peculiar spin structure leads to a large transverse thermoelectric voltage through the anomalous Nernst effect. This implies the possibility of finding good thermoelectric materials among Skyrmion systems, and thus motivates our quests for them by means of the first-principles calculations as were employed here.