Ferrimagnetic Skyrmions in Topological Insulator/Ferrimagnet Heterostructures

Wu, Hao; Groß, Felix; Dai, Bingqian; Lujan, David; Razavi, Seyed Armin; Zhang, Peng; Liu, Yuxiang; Sobotkiewich, Kemal; Förster, Johannes; Weigand, Markus; Schütz, Gisela; Li, Xiaoqin; Gräfe, Joachim; Wang, Kang L.

doi:10.1002/adma.202003380

Title: Ferrimagnetic Skyrmions in Topological Insulator/Ferrimagnet Heterostructures

Journal Article · Tue Jul 14 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Advanced Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202003380· OSTI ID:1638518

^[1]; Groß, Felix ^[2]; Dai, Bingqian ^[1]; Lujan, David ^[3]; Razavi, Seyed Armin ^[1]; Zhang, Peng ^[1]; Liu, Yuxiang ^[1]; Sobotkiewich, Kemal ^[3]; Förster, Johannes ^[2]; Weigand, Markus ^[2]; Schütz, Gisela ^[2]; Li, Xiaoqin ^[3]; Gräfe, Joachim ^[2];

^[1]

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineeringand Department of Physics and AstronomyUniversity of California Los Angeles CA 90095 USA
Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Heisenbergstraße 3 Stuttgart 70569 Germany
Department of Physicsand Center for Complex Quantum SystemsThe University of Texas at Austin Austin TX 78712 USA

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically nontrivial chiral spin textures that have potential applications in next-generation energy-efficient and high-density spintronic devices. In general, the chiral spins of skyrmions are stabilized by the noncollinear Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI), originating from the inversion symmetry breaking combined with the strong spin–orbit coupling (SOC). Here, the strong SOC from topological insulators (TIs) is utilized to provide a large interfacial DMI in TI/ferrimagnet heterostructures at room temperature, resulting in small-size (radius ≈ 100 nm) skyrmions in the adjacent ferrimagnet. Antiferromagnetically coupled skyrmion sublattices are observed in the ferrimagnet by element-resolved scanning transmission X-ray microscopy, showing the potential of a vanishing skyrmion Hall effect and ultrafast skyrmion dynamics. The line-scan spin profile of the single skyrmion shows a Néel-type domain wall structure and a 120 nm size of the 180° domain wall. This work demonstrates the sizable DMI and small skyrmions in TI-based heterostructures with great promise for low-energy spintronic devices.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); US Army Research Office (ARO)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012670; DMR‐1720595; 1611570; 1810163; DMR-1720595; W911NF-16-1-0472; W911NF-15-1-10561

OSTI ID:: 1638518

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1638519; OSTI ID: 1646605

Journal Information:: Advanced Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Materials Vol. 32 Journal Issue: 34; ISSN 0935-9648

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

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Cited by: 36 works

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