Stable magnetic skyrmions at room temperature
Magnetic skyrmions are chiral spin structures with a whirling configuration. By employing x-ray magnetic circular dichroism photoemission electron microscopy, we imaged for the first time the chiral Néel internal structure of stable skyrmions in sputtered ultrathin Pt/Co/MgO nanostructures at room temperature and zero external magnetic field.
O. Boulle et al., Nat. Nanotech. 11, 449 (2016).
British physicist Tony Hilton Royle Skyrme firstly predicted the existence of nanometer-sized solitons exhibiting a chiral spin structure. Named skyrmions, they may show up in certain magnetic materials, either in form of dynamic excitations or stable states. The amazing properties of skyrmions nowadays attract enormous scientific and technological interest. For instance, skyrmions can be moved by very small electrical currents, which opens exciting pathways towards a new generation of memory devices promising extremely high storage density and low power consumption. We succeeded creating stable skyrmions in sputtered ultrathin Pt/Co/MgO nanostructures at room temperature and zero external magnetic field. By employing x-ray magnetic circular dichroism photoemission electron microscopy, we imaged for the first time their chiral Néel internal structure. The observed spin structure is rationalized as due to the |
large strength of the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interactions. The experimental results are substantiated by micromagnetic simulations and numerical models, which allow the identification of the physical mechanisms governing the size and stability of the skyrmions. Retrieve articleRoom-temperature chiral magnetic skyrmions in ultrathin magnetic nanostructures;O. Boulle, J. Vogel, H. Yang, S. Pizzini, D. de Souza Chaves, A. Locatelli, T.O. Menteş, A. Sala, L.D. Buda-Prejbeanu, O.Klein, M. Belmeguenai, Y. Roussigné, A. Stashkevich, S.M.Chérif, L. Aballe, M. Foerster, M. Chshiev, S. Auffret, I.M. Miron and G. Gaudin; Nat. Nanotech. 11, 449 (2016); doi: 10.1038/nnano.2015.315; |