Magnetostatic twists in room-temperature skyrmions explored by nitrogen-vacancy center spin texture reconstruction

Dovzhenko, Y.; Casola, F.; Schlotter, S.; Zhou, T. X.; Büttner, F.; Walsworth, R. L.; Beach, G. S. D.; Yacoby, A.

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05158-9

Magnetostatic twists in room-temperature skyrmions explored by nitrogen-vacancy center spin texture reconstruction

Journal Article · Fri Jul 13 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05158-9· OSTI ID:1459464

Dovzhenko, Y.; Casola, F.; ; ; ; Walsworth, R. L.; ; Yacoby, A.

Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions are two-dimensional non-collinear spin textures characterized by an integer topological number. Room-temperature skyrmions were recently found in magnetic multilayer stacks, where their stability was largely attributed to the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction. The strength of this interaction and its role in stabilizing the skyrmions is not yet well understood, and imaging of the full spin structure is needed to address this question. Here, we use a nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond to measure a map of magnetic fields produced by a skyrmion in a magnetic multilayer under ambient conditions. We compute the manifold of candidate spin structures and select the physically meaningful solution. We find a Néel-type skyrmion whose chirality is not left-handed, contrary to preceding reports. We propose skyrmion tube-like structures whose chirality rotates through the film thickness. We show that NV magnetometry, combined with our analysis method, provides a unique tool to investigate this previously inaccessible phenomenon.

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Research Organization:: Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012371

OSTI ID:: 1459464

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1511458

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 9; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

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