No Arabic abstract
We investigate the dynamics of two skyrmions lying in distinct layers of an antiferromagnetic bilayer system, consisting of nanostripes with the shape of racetracks. The top and bottom nanostripes are separated by a height offset and they are coupled through a ferromagnetic exchange, allowing the interaction between the skyrmions from both layers. Depending on the distance between the skyrmions they attract each other sufficiently to achieve a bound state. We also analyze their dynamics when an electric current is applied in a unique layer and we determine how the bound-state nucleation depends on the current density and vertical distance between the skyrmions. Finally, we analyzed the robustness of the bound states by considering two situations: 1) a system constituted by clean or homogeneous antiferromagnetic racetracks; 2) a system in which randomly distributed magnetic impurities in both layers are included in the system.
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.
Magnetic skyrmions are chiral spin textures that hold great promise as nanoscale information carriers. Since their first observation at room temperature, progress has been made in their current-induced manipulation, with fast motion reported in stray-field-coupled multilayers. However, the complex spin textures with hybrid chiralities and large power dissipation in these multilayers limit their practical implementation and the fundamental understanding of their dynamics. Here, we report on the current-driven motion of Neel skyrmions with diameters in the 100-nm range in an ultrathin Pt/Co/MgO trilayer. We find that these skyrmions can be driven at a speed of 100 m/s and exhibit a drive-dependent skyrmion Hall effect, which is accounted for by the effect of pinning. Our experiments are well substantiated by an analytical model of the skyrmion dynamics as well as by micromagnetic simulations including material inhomogeneities. This good agreement is enabled by the simple skyrmion spin structure in our system and a thorough characterization of its static and dynamical properties.
Topological spin textures can be found in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional nanostructures, which are of great importance to advanced spintronic applications. Here we report the current-induced skyrmion tube dynamics in three-dimensional synthetic antiferromagnetic (SyAF) bilayer and multilayer nanostructures. It is found that the SyAF skyrmion tube made of thinner sublayer skyrmions is more stable during its motion, which ensures that a higher speed of the skyrmion tube can be reached effectively at larger driving current. In the SyAF multilayer with a given total thickness, the current-induced deformation of the SyAF skyrmion tube decreases with an increasing number of interfaces; namely, the rigidity of the SyAF skyrmion tube with a given thickness increases with the number of ferromagnetic (FM) layers. For the SyAF multilayer with an even number of FM layers, the skyrmion Hall effect can be eliminated when the thicknesses of all FM layers are identical. Larger damping parameter leads to smaller deformation and slower speed of the SyAF skyrmion tube. Larger fieldlike torque leads to larger deformation and a higher speed of the SyAF skyrmion tube. Our results are useful for understanding the dynamic behaviors of three-dimensional topological spin textures and may provide guidelines for building SyAF spintronic devices.
We construct Holstein-Primakoff Hamiltonian for magnons in arbitrary slowly varying spin background, for a microscopic spin Hamiltonian consisting of ferromagnetic spin exchange,Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya exchange, and the Zeeman term. The Gross-Pitaevskii-type equation for magnon dynamics contains several background gauge fields pertaining to local spin chirality, inhomogeneous potential, and anomalous scattering that violates the boson number conservation. Non-trivial corrections to previous formulas derived in the literature are given. Subsequent mapping to hydrodynamic fields yields the continuity equation and the Euler equation of the magnon fluid dynamics. Magnon wave scattering off a localized Skyrmion is examined numerically based on our Gross-Pitaevskii formulation. Dependence of the effective flux experienced by the impinging magnon on the Skyrmion radius is pointed out, and compared with analysis of the same problem using the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation.
We investigate skyrmion configuration and dynamics in antiferromagnetic thin disks. It is shown that the skyrmion acquires oscillatory dynamics with well-defined amplitude and frequency which may be controlled on demand by the spin-polarized current. Such dynamics are robust in the sense that an interface between two half-disks cannot change the dynamics appreciably. Indeed, the skyrmion keeps its oscillatory despite crossing this interface. The way skyrmion found to do that is by modifying its core region shape so that its total energy is unaltered for several cycles.