Journal Article

Skyrmions in synthetic antiferromagnets and their nucleation via electrical current and ultra-fast laser illumination

Gaudin, Gilles, Raabe, Jörg, Finizio, Simone, Mille, Nicolas, Aballe, Lucia, Juge, Roméo, Sisodia, Naveen, Pham, Van Tuong, Sarpi, Brice, Mawass, Mohamad-Assaad, Wintz, Sebastian, Ranno, Laurent, Buda-Prejbeanu, Liliana D., Boulle, Olivier, Belkhou, Rachid, Novakovic-Marinkovic, Nina, Rana, Kumari Gaurav, Pelloux-Prayer, Johan, Foerster, Michael, Zhang, Qiang, Kronast, Florian, Gräfe, Joachim, Nembach, Hans T., Stanescu, Stefan, Weigand, Markus, Shaw, Justin M., Belmeguenai, Mohamed, Larrañaga, Joseba Urrestarazu

2022

Overview

Magnetic skyrmions are topological spin textures that hold great promise as nanoscale information carriers in non-volatile memory and logic devices. While room-temperature magnetic skyrmions and their current-induced motion were recently demonstrated, the stray field resulting from their finite magnetisation and their topological charge limit their minimum size and reliable motion. Antiferromagnetic skyrmions allow to lift these limitations owing to their vanishing magnetisation and net zero topological charge, promising ultra-small and ultra-fast skyrmions. Here, we report on the observation of isolated skyrmions in compensated synthetic antiferromagnets at zero field and room temperature using X-ray magnetic microscopy. Micromagnetic simulations and an analytical model confirm the chiral antiferromagnetic nature of these skyrmions and allow the identification of the physical mechanisms controlling their size and stability. Finally, we demonstrate the nucleation of synthetic antiferromagnetic skyrmions via local current injection and ultra-fast laser excitation. Skyrmions in synthetic antiferromagnets are appealing for use in future memory and computing devices, combining small size and fast motion, but creating, stabilizing, and observing them remains a challenge. Here, Juge et al demonstrate the stabilization and current and light induced nucleation of skyrmions in a synthetic antiferromagnet, observing the magnetization texture in each layer using X-ray magnetic microscopy.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 639/301/119/1001 / 639/301/119/997 / Antiferromagnetism / Condensed Matter / Current injection / Humanities and Social Sciences / Hypothetical particles / Local current / Magnetization / Materials Science / Memory devices / Microscopy / multidisciplinary / Nucleation / Particle theory / Physics / Room temperature / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Topology / Ultrafast lasers