[en] Skyrmions in magnetic materials offer attractive perspectives for future spintronic applications since they are topologically stabilized spin structures on the nanometre scale, which can be manipulated with electric current densities that are by orders of magnitude lower than those required for moving domain walls. So far, they were restricted to bulk magnets with a particular chiral crystal symmetry greatly limiting the number of available systems and the adjustability of their properties. Recently, it has been experimentally discovered that magnetic skyrmion phases can also occur in ultra-thin transition metal films at surfaces. Here we present an understanding of skyrmions in such systems based on first-principles electronic structure theory. We demonstrate that the properties of magnetic skyrmions at transition metal interfaces such as their diameter and their stability can be tuned by the structure and composition of the interface and that a description beyond a micromagnetic model is required in such systems.
Disciplines :
Physics
Author, co-author :
Dupé, Bertrand ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de physique > Physique des matériaux et nanostructures
Hoffmann, Markus
Paillard, Charles
Heinze, Stefan
Language :
English
Title :
Tailoring magnetic skyrmions in ultra-thin transition metal films
scite shows how a scientific paper has been cited by providing the context of the citation, a classification describing whether it supports, mentions, or contrasts the cited claim, and a label indicating in which section the citation was made.
Bibliography
Bogdanov, A. N. &Yablonskii, D. A. Thermodynamically stable 'vortices' in magnetically ordered crystals. The mixed state of magnets. Sov. Phys. JETP 68, 101-103 (1989).
Bogdanov, A. N. &Hubert, A. Thermodynamically stable magnetic vortex states in magnetic crystals. J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 138, 255-269 (1994).
Bogdanov, A. N. &Ro-ler, U. K. Chiral symmetric breaking in magnetic thin films and multilayers. Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 037203 (2001).
Roler, U. K., Bogdanov, A. N. &Pfleiderer, C. Spontaneous skyrmion ground states in magnetic metals. Nature 442, 797-801 (2006). (Pubitemid 44261900)
Muhlbauer, S. et al. Skyrmion lattice in a chiral magnet. Science 323, 915-919 (2009).
Pappas, C. et al. Chiral Paramagnetic Skyrmion-like Phase in MnSi. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 197202 (2009).
Moskvin, E. et al. Complex chiral modulations in FeGe close to magnetic ordering. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 077207 (2013).
Yu, X. Z. et al. Real space observation of a two-dimensional skyrmion crystal. Nature 465, 901-904 (2010).
Yu, X. Z. et al. Near room-temperature formation of a skyrmion crystal in thinfilms of the helimagnet FeGe. Nat. Mat 10, 106-109 (2010).
Seki, S., Yu, X. Z., Ishiwata, S. &Tokura, Y. Observation of skyrmions in a multiferroic material. Science 336, 198-201 (2012).
Heinze, S. et al. Spontaneous atomic-scale magnetic skyrmion lattice in two dimensions. Nat. Phys. 7, 713-719 (2011).
Romming, N. et al. Writing and deleting single skyrmions. Science 341, 636-639 (2013).
Butenko, A. B., Leonov, A. A., Ro-ler, U. K. &Bogdanov, A. N. Stabilization of skyrmion textures by uniaxial distortions in noncentrosymmetric cubic helimagnets. Phys. Rev. B 82, 052403 (2010).
Kiselev, N. S., Bogdanov, A. N., Schafer, R. &Ro-ler, U. K. Chiral skyrmions in thin magnetic films: new objects for magnetic storage technology? J. Phys. D 44, 392001 (2011).
Fert, A., Cros, V. &Sampaio, J. Skyrmions on the track. Nat. Nanotechnol. 8, 152-156 (2013).
Lee, M., Kang, W., Onose, Y., Tokura, Y. &Ong, N. P. Unusual Hall effect anomaly in MnSi under pressure. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 186601 (2009).
Neubauer, A. et al. Topological Hall effect in the A phase of MnSi. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 186602 (2009).
Jonietz, F. et al. Spin transfer torques in MnSi at ultralow current densities. Science 330, 1648-1651 (2010).
Yu, X. Z. et al. Skyrmion flow near room temperature in an ultralow current density. Nat. Commun. 3, 988 (2012).
Schulz, T. et al. Emergent electrodynamics of skyrmions in a chiral magnet. Nat. Phys. 8, 301-304 (2012).
Iwasaki, J., Mochizuki, M. &Nagaosa, N. Universal current-velocity relation of skyrmion motion in chiral magnets. Nat. Commun. 4, 1463 (2013).
Iwasaki, J., Mochizuki, M. &Nagaosa, N. Current-induced skyrmion dynamics in constricted geometries. Nat. Nanotechnol. 8, 742-747 (2013).
Sampaio, J., Cros, V., Rohart, S., Thiaville, A. &Fert, A. Nucleation, stability, and current-induced motion of isolated magnetic skyrmions in nanostructures. Nat. Nanotechnol. 8, 839-844 (2013).
Dzyaloshinskii, I. E. Thermodynamic theory of 'weak' ferromagnetism in antiferromagnetic substances. Sov. Phys. JETP 5, 1259-1262 (1957).
Moriya, T. Anisotropic superexchange interaction and weak ferromagnetism. Phys. Rev. 120, 91-98 (1960).
Fert, A. &Levy, P. A. Role of anisotropic exchange interactions in determining the properties of spin glasses. Phys. Rev. Lett. 44, 1538-1541 (1980).
Bode, M. et al. Chiral magnetic order at surfaces driven by inversion asymmetry. Nature 447, 190-193 (2007). (Pubitemid 46763084)
Kurz, Ph., Forster, F., Nordstrom, L., Bihlmayer, G. &Blugel, S. Ab initio treatment of noncollinear magnets with the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method. Phys. Rev. B 69, 024415 (2004).
Heide, M., Bihlmayer, G. &Blugel, S. Describing Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya spirals from first-principles. Physica B 404, 2678 (2009).
Berg, B. &Luscher, M. Definition and statistical distribution of a topological number in the lattice O(3) s-model. Nucl. Phys. B 190, 412 (1981).
Heinze, S. Simulation of spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy images of non-collinear spin structures. Appl. Phys. A 85, 407 (2006).
Han, J. H., Zang, J., Yang, Z., Park, J.-H. &Nagaosa, N. Skyrmion lattice in a two-dimensional chiral magnet. Phys. Rev. B 82, 094429 (2010).
Hardrat, B. et al. Complex magnetism of Fe monolayers on hexagonal transition-metal surfaces from first-principles. Phys. Rev. B 79, 094411 (2009).
De Santis, M. et al. Structure and magnetic properties of Mn/Pt(110)-(1×2): A joint x-ray diffraction and theoretical study. Phys. Rev. B 75, 205432 (2007).
Similar publications
Sorry the service is unavailable at the moment. Please try again later.
This website uses cookies to improve user experience. Read more
Save & Close
Accept all
Decline all
Show detailsHide details
Cookie declaration
About cookies
Strictly necessary
Performance
Strictly necessary cookies allow core website functionality such as user login and account management. The website cannot be used properly without strictly necessary cookies.
This cookie is used by Cookie-Script.com service to remember visitor cookie consent preferences. It is necessary for Cookie-Script.com cookie banner to work properly.
Performance cookies are used to see how visitors use the website, eg. analytics cookies. Those cookies cannot be used to directly identify a certain visitor.
Used to store the attribution information, the referrer initially used to visit the website
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. Websites use cookies to help users navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. Cookies that are required for the website to operate properly are allowed to be set without your permission. All other cookies need to be approved before they can be set in the browser.
You can change your consent to cookie usage at any time on our Privacy Policy page.