Magnetic skyrmionic structures with variable topological charges in engineered Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction systems

Niu, Heng; Yoon, Han Gyu; Kwon, Hee Young; Cheng, Zhiyuan; Fu, Siqi; Zhu, Hongying; Miao, Bingfeng; Sun, Liang; Wu, Yizheng; Schmid, Andreas K.; Liu, Kai; Won, Changyeon; Ding, Haifeng; Chen, Gong

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-58529-4

Magnetic skyrmionic structures with variable topological charges in engineered Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction systems

Journal Article · Fri Apr 11 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58529-4· OSTI ID:2567025

^[1]; Yoon, Han Gyu ^[2]; Kwon, Hee Young ^[3]; Cheng, Zhiyuan ^[1]; Fu, Siqi ^[1]; Zhu, Hongying ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[4]; ^[5]; ^[6]; ^[2]; ^[1]; ^[1]

Nanjing Univ. (China)
Kyung Hee Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
Georgetown Univ., Washington, DC (United States)

Magnetic skyrmionic structures, including magnetic skyrmions and antiskyrmions, are characterized by swirling spin textures with non-trivial topologies. They are featured with specific topological charges, Q, which are of crucial importance in determining their topological properties. Owing to the invariance of the chiral nature, it is generally believed that Q is conserved in a given magnetic skyrmionic structure and is hard to alter. Here, we experimentally realize the control of Q of magnetic skyrmionic structures at room temperature in a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) platform with spatially alternating signs. Depending on how many times it crosses the interfaces between DMI regions with opposite signs, the magnetic skyrmionic structures possess different Q. Modifying the DMI energy landscape through chemisorbed oxygen, a magnetic topological transition is realized. This creation and manipulation of magnetic skyrmionic structures with controllable Q, in particular the DMI-stabilized thin-film antiskyrmions and high-Q skyrmionic structures, enables a new degree of freedom to control their dynamics via a novel DMI confinement effect. Our findings open up an unexplored avenue on various topological magnetic skyrmionic structures and their potential applications.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

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

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 2567025

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 16; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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