Individual skyrmion manipulation by local magnetic field gradients

Casiraghi A, Corte-Leon H, Vafaee M, Garcia-Sanchez F, Durin G, Pasquale M, Jakob G, Klaeui M, Kazakova O (2019)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

Communications Physics Springer Nature

Book Volume: 2

Article Number: 145

Journal Issue: 1

DOI: 10.1038/s42005-019-0242-5

Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected spin textures, stabilised in systems with strong Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). Several studies have shown that electrical currents can move skyrmions efficiently through spin-orbit torques. While promising for technological applications, current-driven skyrmion motion is intrinsically collective and accompanied by undesired heating effects. Here we demonstrate a new approach to control individual skyrmion positions precisely, which relies on the magnetic interaction between sample and a magnetic force microscopy (MFM) probe. We investigate perpendicularly magnetised X/CoFeB/MgO multilayers, where for X = W or Pt the DMI is sufficiently strong to allow for skyrmion nucleation in an applied field. We show that these skyrmions can be manipulated individually through the local field gradient generated by the scanning MFM probe with an unprecedented level of accuracy. Furthermore, we show that the probe stray field can assist skyrmion nucleation. Our proof-of-concepts results pave the way towards achieving current-free skyrmion control.

Involved external institutions

Italian National Institute of Metrology Research / Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (INRiM) IT Italy (IT) The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) GB United Kingdom (GB) Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Casiraghi, A., Corte-Leon, H., Vafaee, M., Garcia-Sanchez, F., Durin, G., Pasquale, M.,... Kazakova, O. (2019). Individual skyrmion manipulation by local magnetic field gradients. Communications Physics, 2(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42005-019-0242-5

MLA:

Casiraghi, Arianna, et al. "Individual skyrmion manipulation by local magnetic field gradients." Communications Physics 2.1 (2019).

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