Demonstration of controlled skyrmion injection across a thickness step
Spintronic devices incorporating magnetic skyrmions have attracted significant interest recently. Such devices traditionally focus on controlling magnetic textures in 2D thin films. However, enhanced performance of spintronic properties through the exploitation of higher dimensionalities motivates t...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Chemical Society
2024
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| _version_ | 1811140591819423744 |
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| author | Littlehales, MT Moody, SH Turnbull, LA Huddart, BM Brereton, BA Balakrishnan, G Fan, R Steadman, P Hatton, PD Wilson, MN |
| author_facet | Littlehales, MT Moody, SH Turnbull, LA Huddart, BM Brereton, BA Balakrishnan, G Fan, R Steadman, P Hatton, PD Wilson, MN |
| author_sort | Littlehales, MT |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Spintronic devices incorporating magnetic skyrmions have attracted significant interest recently. Such devices traditionally focus on controlling magnetic textures in 2D thin films. However, enhanced performance of spintronic properties through the exploitation of higher dimensionalities motivates the investigation of variable-thickness skyrmion devices. We report the demonstration of a skyrmion injection mechanism that utilizes charge currents to drive skyrmions across a thickness step and, consequently, a metastability barrier. Our measurements show that under certain temperature and field conditions skyrmions can be reversibly injected from a thin region of an FeGe lamella, where they exist as an equilibrium state, into a thicker region, where they can only persist as a metastable state. This injection is achieved with a current density of 3 × 108 A m–2, nearly 3 orders of magnitude lower than required to move magnetic domain walls. This highlights the possibility to use such an element as a skyrmion source/drain within future spintronic devices. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:24:25Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:0e43151e-cb8b-42cf-887b-7e860d1bf9c5 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:24:25Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | American Chemical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:0e43151e-cb8b-42cf-887b-7e860d1bf9c52024-08-22T12:01:56ZDemonstration of controlled skyrmion injection across a thickness stepJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:0e43151e-cb8b-42cf-887b-7e860d1bf9c5EnglishSymplectic ElementsAmerican Chemical Society2024Littlehales, MTMoody, SHTurnbull, LAHuddart, BMBrereton, BABalakrishnan, GFan, RSteadman, PHatton, PDWilson, MNSpintronic devices incorporating magnetic skyrmions have attracted significant interest recently. Such devices traditionally focus on controlling magnetic textures in 2D thin films. However, enhanced performance of spintronic properties through the exploitation of higher dimensionalities motivates the investigation of variable-thickness skyrmion devices. We report the demonstration of a skyrmion injection mechanism that utilizes charge currents to drive skyrmions across a thickness step and, consequently, a metastability barrier. Our measurements show that under certain temperature and field conditions skyrmions can be reversibly injected from a thin region of an FeGe lamella, where they exist as an equilibrium state, into a thicker region, where they can only persist as a metastable state. This injection is achieved with a current density of 3 × 108 A m–2, nearly 3 orders of magnitude lower than required to move magnetic domain walls. This highlights the possibility to use such an element as a skyrmion source/drain within future spintronic devices. |
| spellingShingle | Littlehales, MT Moody, SH Turnbull, LA Huddart, BM Brereton, BA Balakrishnan, G Fan, R Steadman, P Hatton, PD Wilson, MN Demonstration of controlled skyrmion injection across a thickness step |
| title | Demonstration of controlled skyrmion injection across a thickness step |
| title_full | Demonstration of controlled skyrmion injection across a thickness step |
| title_fullStr | Demonstration of controlled skyrmion injection across a thickness step |
| title_full_unstemmed | Demonstration of controlled skyrmion injection across a thickness step |
| title_short | Demonstration of controlled skyrmion injection across a thickness step |
| title_sort | demonstration of controlled skyrmion injection across a thickness step |
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