Generation and Hall effect of skyrmions enabled using nonmagnetic point contacts

Wang, Zidong; Zhang, Xichao; Xia, Jing; Zhao, Le; Wu, Keyu; Yu, Guoqiang; Wang, Kang L.; Liu, Xiaoxi; te Velthuis, Suzanne G.  E.; Hoffmann, Axel; Zhou, Yan; Jiang, Wanjun

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.100.184426

Generation and Hall effect of skyrmions enabled using nonmagnetic point contacts

Journal Article · Wed Nov 27 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Physical Review B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.184426· OSTI ID:1578047

Wang, Zidong ^[1]; Zhang, Xichao ^[2]; Xia, Jing ^[2]; Zhao, Le ^[1]; Wu, Keyu ^[1]; Yu, Guoqiang ^[3]; Wang, Kang L. ^[4]; Liu, Xiaoxi ^[5]; te Velthuis, Suzanne G. E. ^[6]; Hoffmann, Axel ^[6]; Zhou, Yan ^[2]; ^[1]

Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, Guangdong (China)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Shinshu Univ., Nagano (Japan)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

The generation and manipulation of magnetic skyrmions are perquisites for any skyrmion-based information processing devices, where skyrmions are used as nonvolatile information carriers. In this work, we report experimentally the skyrmion generation through the usage of a nonmagnetic conducting Ti/Au point contact in a device made of a Ta/ CoFeB/TaO_x trilayer film. Moreover, the accompanied topological charge-dependent skyrmion dynamics, namely the skyrmion Hall effect, is also observed in the same device. The creation process of a skyrmion has been numerically reproduced through micromagnetic simulations, in which the important role of the skyrmion-antiskyrmion pair formation is identified. The motion and Hall effect of a skyrmion, immediately after its creation, is described using a modified Thiele equation after taking into account the contribution from spatially inhomogeneous spin-orbit torques and the Magnus force. Our findings on the simultaneous generation and manipulation of skyrmions using a nonmagnetic point contact are useful for understanding the ultrafast dynamics of skyrmion creation, which could further offer an effective pathway for designing skyrmion-based devices.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Key R&D Program of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC); Shenzhen Fundamental Research Fund; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1578047

Journal Information:: Physical Review B, Journal Name: Physical Review B Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 100; ISSN 2469-9950; ISSN PRBMDO

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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