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Tunable Room Temperature Magnetic Skyrmions in Ir/Fe/Co/Pt Multilayers

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 نشر من قبل Anjan Soumyanarayanan
 تاريخ النشر 2016
  مجال البحث فيزياء
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Magnetic skyrmions are nanoscale topological spin structures offering great promise for next-generation information storage technologies. The recent discovery of sub-100 nm room temperature (RT) skyrmions in several multilayer films has triggered vigorous efforts to modulate their physical properties for their use in devices. Here we present a tunable RT skyrmion platform based on multilayer stacks of Ir/Fe/Co/Pt, which we study using X-ray microscopy, magnetic force microscopy and Hall transport techniques. By varying the ferromagnetic layer composition, we can tailor the magnetic interactions governing skyrmion properties, thereby tuning their thermodynamic stability parameter by an order of magnitude. The skyrmions exhibit a smooth crossover between isolated (metastable) and disordered lattice configurations across samples, while their size and density can be tuned by factors of 2 and 10 respectively. We thus establish a platform for investigating functional sub-50 nm RT skyrmions, pointing towards the development of skyrmion-based memory devices.



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Magnetic skyrmions are nanoscale spin structures recently discovered at room temperature (RT) in multilayer films. Employing their novel topological properties towards exciting technological prospects requires a mechanistic understanding of the excit ation and relaxation mechanisms governing their stability and dynamics. Here we report on the magnetization dynamics of RT Neel skyrmions in Ir/Fe/Co/Pt multilayer films. We observe a ubiquitous excitation mode in the microwave absorption spectrum, arising from the gyrotropic resonance of topological skyrmions, and robust over a wide range of temperatures and sample compositions. A combination of simulations and analytical calculations establish that the spectrum is shaped by the interplay of interlayer and interfacial magnetic interactions unique to multilayers, yielding skyrmion resonances strongly renormalized to lower frequencies. Our work provides fundamental spectroscopic insights on the spatiotemporal dynamics of topological spin structures, and crucial directions towards their functionalization in nanoscale devices.
Skyrmions are topologically protected, two-dimensional, localized hedgehogs and whorls of spin. Originally invented as a concept in field theory for nuclear interactions, skyrmions are central to a wide range of phenomena in condensed matter. Their r ealization at room temperature (RT) in magnetic multilayers has generated considerable interest, fueled by technological prospects and the access granted to fundamental questions. The interaction of skyrmions with charge carriers gives rise to exotic electrodynamics, such as the topological Hall effect (THE), the Hall response to an emergent magnetic field, a manifestation of the skyrmion Berry-phase. The proposal that THE can be used to detect skyrmions needs to be tested quantitatively. For that it is imperative to develop comprehensive understanding of skyrmions and other chiral textures, and their electrical fingerprint. Here, using Hall transport and magnetic imaging, we track the evolution of magnetic textures and their THE signature in a technologically viable multilayer film as a function of temperature ($T$) and out-of-plane applied magnetic field ($H$). We show that topological Hall resistivity ($rho_mathrm{TH}$) scales with the density of isolated skyrmions ($n_mathrm{sk}$) over a wide range of $T$, confirming the impact of the skyrmion Berry-phase on electronic transport. We find that at higher $n_mathrm{sk}$ skyrmions cluster into worms which carry considerable topological charge, unlike topologically-trivial spin spirals. While we establish a qualitative agreement between $rho_mathrm{TH}(H,T)$ and areal density of topological charge $n_mathrm{T}(H,T)$, our detailed quantitative analysis shows a much larger $rho_mathrm{TH}$ than the prevailing theory predicts for observed $n_mathrm{T}$.
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