Observation of room-temperature magnetic skyrmions and their current-driven dynamics in ultrathin metallic ferromagnets

Nature Materials

Volumn 15, Issue 5, 2016, Pages 501-506

  Woo, Seonghoon ^a   Litzius, Kai ^b   Krüger, Benjamin ^b   Im, Mi Young ^c,d   Caretta, Lucas ^a   Richter, Kornel ^b   Mann, Maxwell ^a   Krone, Andrea ^b   Reeve, Robert M ^b   Weigand, Markus ^e   Agrawal, Parnika ^a   Lemesh, Ivan ^a   Mawass, Mohamad Assaad ^b,e   Fischer, Peter ^c,f   Kläui, Mathias ^b   Beach, Geoffrey S D ^a  

^a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge   (United States)

^b JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITY   (Germany)

^c LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY   (United States)

^d Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology   (South Korea)

^e MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS   (Germany)

^f UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ENERGY EFFICIENCY; FERROMAGNETIC MATERIALS; FERROMAGNETISM; MAGNETISM; MAGNETOELECTRONICS; MAGNETS; TRANSITION METALS;

EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE; MAGNETIC TRANSMISSIONS; METALLIC FERROMAGNETS; MOTION OF INDIVIDUAL; SKYRMION LATTICES; SOFT X-RAY MICROSCOPY; SPINTRONIC DEVICE; TRANSITION-METAL FERROMAGNETS;

MAGNETIC LEVITATION VEHICLES;

EID: 84959216389     PISSN: 14761122     EISSN: 14764660     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1038/nmat4593     Document Type: Article

References (29)

1. Rößler, U. K., Bogdanov, A. N. & Pfleiderer, C. Spontaneous skyrmion ground states in magnetic metals. Nature 442, 797-801 (2006).
2. Mühlbauer, S. et al. Skyrmion lattice in a chiral magnet. Science 323, 915-919 (2009).
3. Münzer,W. et al. Skyrmion lattice in the doped semiconductor Fe1-xCoxSi. Phys. Rev. B 81, 041203 (2010).
4. Yu, X. Z. et al. Real-space observation of a two-dimensional skyrmion crystal. Nature 465, 901-904 (2010).
5. Yu, X. Z. et al. Near room-temperature formation of a skyrmion crystal in thin-films of the helimagnet FeGe. Nature Mater. 10, 106-109 (2011).
6. Heinze, S. et al. Spontaneous atomic-scale magnetic skyrmion lattice in two dimensions. Nature Phys. 7, 713-718 (2011).
7. Jonietz, F. et al. Spin transfer torques in MnSi at ultralow current densities. Science 330, 1648-1651 (2010).
8. Schulz, T. et al. Emergent electrodynamics of skyrmions in a chiral magnet. Nature Phys. 8, 301-304 (2012).
9. Yu, X. Z. et al. Skyrmion flow near room temperature in an ultralow current density. Nature Commun. 3, 988 (2012).
10. Iwasaki, J., Mochizuki, M. & Nagaosa, N. Universal current-velocity relation of skyrmion motion in chiral magnets. Nature Commun. 4, 1463 (2013).
11. Fert, A., Cros, V. & Sampaio, J. Skyrmions on the track. Nature Nanotech. 8, 152-156 (2013).
12. Iwasaki, J., Mochizuki, M. & Nagaosa, N. Current-induced skyrmion dynamics in constricted geometries. Nature Nanotech. 8, 742-747 (2013).
13. Sampaio, J., Cros, V., Rohart, S., Thiaville, A. & Fert, A. Nucleation, stability and current-induced motion of isolated magnetic skyrmions in nanostructures. Nature Nanotech. 8, 839-844 (2013).
14. Dzyaloshinsky, I. A thermodynamic theory of 'weak' ferromagnetism of antiferromagnetics. J. Phys. Chem. Solids 4, 241-255 (1958).
15. Moriya, T. Anisotropic superexchange interaction and weak ferromagnetism. Phys. Rev. 120, 91-98 (1960).
16. Uchida, M., Onose, Y., Matsui, Y. & Tokura, Y. Real-space observation of helical spin order. Science 311, 359-361 (2006).
17. Bode, M. et al. Chiral magnetic order at surfaces driven by inversion asymmetry. Nature 447, 190-193 (2007).
18. Fert, A. & Levy, P. M. Role of anisotropic exchange interactions in determining the properties of spin-glasses. Phys. Rev. Lett. 44, 1538-1541 (1980).
19. Emori, S., Bauer, U., Ahn, S.-M., Martinez, E. & Beach, G. S. D. Current-driven dynamics of chiral ferromagnetic domain walls. Nature Mater. 12, 611-616 (2013).
20. Ryu, K.-S., Thomas, L., Yang, S.-H. & Parkin, S. Chiral spin torque at magnetic domain walls. Nature Nanotech. 8, 527-533 (2013).
21. Pizzini, S. et al. Chirality-induced asymmetric magnetic nucleation in Pt/Co/AlOx ultrathin microstructures. Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 047203 (2014).
22. Emori, S. et al. Spin Hall torque magnetometry of Dzyaloshinskii domain walls. Phys. Rev. B 90, 184427 (2014).
23. Torrejon, J. et al. Interface control of the magnetic chirality in CoFeB/MgO heterostructures with heavy-metal underlayers. Nature Commun. 5, 4655 (2014).
24. Lo Conte, R. et al. Role of B diffusion in the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in Ta/Co20Fe60B20/MgO nanowires. Phys. Rev. B 91, 014433 (2015).
25. Heide, M., Bihlmayer, G. & Blügel, S. Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction accounting for the orientation of magnetic domains in ultrathin films: Fe/W(110). Phys. Rev. B 78, 140403 (2008).
26. Thiaville, A., Rohart, S., Jué, É., Cros, V. & Fert, A. Dynamics of Dzyaloshinskii domain walls in ultrathin magnetic films. Europhys. Lett. 100, 57002 (2012).
27. Malek, Z. & Kambersky, V. On the theory of the domain structure of thin films of magnetically uniaxial materials. Czech. J. Phys. 8, 416-421 (1958).
28. Woo, S.,Mann, M., Tan, A. J., Caretta, L. & Beach, G. S. D. Enhanced spin-orbit torques in Pt/Co/Ta heterostructures. Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 212404 (2014).
29. Jiang,W. et al. Blowing magnetic skyrmion bubbles. Science 349, 283-286 (2015).