Skyrmion fluctuations at a first-order phase transition boundary
Abstract
Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected spin textures with promising prospects for applications in data storage. They can form a lattice state due to competing magnetic interactions and are commonly found in a small region of the temperature—magnetic field phase diagram. Recent work has demonstrated that these magnetic quasi-particles fluctuate at the μeV energy scale. Here, we use a coherent x-ray correlation method at an x-ray free-electron laser to investigate these fluctuations in a magnetic phase coexistence region near a first-order transition boundary where fluctuations are not expected to play a major role. Surprisingly, we find that the relaxation of the intermediate scattering function at this transition differs significantly compared to that deep in the skyrmion lattice phase. The observation of a compressed exponential behavior suggests solid-like dynamics, often associated with jamming. We assign this behavior to disorder and the phase coexistence observed in a narrow field-window near the transition, which can cause fluctuations that lead to glassy behavior.
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- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)
- Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, San Diego, CA (United States)
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS); Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division
- Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division; Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
- Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1632651
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1617087; OSTI ID: 1775384
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515; AC02-05-CH11231; SC0003678
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Applied Physics Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 116; Journal Issue: 18; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; Free electron lasers; Monochromators; X-rays; Magnetic materials; Thin films; Data storage and retrieval; Optical metrology; Phase transitions; Hypothetical particles; Magnetic fields
Citation Formats
Esposito, V., Zheng, X. Y., Seaberg, M. H., Montoya, S. A., Holladay, B., Reid, A. H., Streubel, R., Lee, J. C. T., Shen, L., Koralek, J. D., Coslovich, G., Walter, P., Zohar, S., Thampy, V., Lin, M. F., Hart, P., Nakahara, K., Fischer, P., Colocho, W., Lutman, A., Decker, F. -J., Sinha, S. K., Fullerton, E. E., Kevan, S. D., Roy, S., Dunne, M., and Turner, J. J. Skyrmion fluctuations at a first-order phase transition boundary. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1063/5.0004879.
Esposito, V., Zheng, X. Y., Seaberg, M. H., Montoya, S. A., Holladay, B., Reid, A. H., Streubel, R., Lee, J. C. T., Shen, L., Koralek, J. D., Coslovich, G., Walter, P., Zohar, S., Thampy, V., Lin, M. F., Hart, P., Nakahara, K., Fischer, P., Colocho, W., Lutman, A., Decker, F. -J., Sinha, S. K., Fullerton, E. E., Kevan, S. D., Roy, S., Dunne, M., & Turner, J. J. Skyrmion fluctuations at a first-order phase transition boundary. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0004879
Esposito, V., Zheng, X. Y., Seaberg, M. H., Montoya, S. A., Holladay, B., Reid, A. H., Streubel, R., Lee, J. C. T., Shen, L., Koralek, J. D., Coslovich, G., Walter, P., Zohar, S., Thampy, V., Lin, M. F., Hart, P., Nakahara, K., Fischer, P., Colocho, W., Lutman, A., Decker, F. -J., Sinha, S. K., Fullerton, E. E., Kevan, S. D., Roy, S., Dunne, M., and Turner, J. J. Mon .
"Skyrmion fluctuations at a first-order phase transition boundary". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0004879. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1632651.
@article{osti_1632651,
title = {Skyrmion fluctuations at a first-order phase transition boundary},
author = {Esposito, V. and Zheng, X. Y. and Seaberg, M. H. and Montoya, S. A. and Holladay, B. and Reid, A. H. and Streubel, R. and Lee, J. C. T. and Shen, L. and Koralek, J. D. and Coslovich, G. and Walter, P. and Zohar, S. and Thampy, V. and Lin, M. F. and Hart, P. and Nakahara, K. and Fischer, P. and Colocho, W. and Lutman, A. and Decker, F. -J. and Sinha, S. K. and Fullerton, E. E. and Kevan, S. D. and Roy, S. and Dunne, M. and Turner, J. J.},
abstractNote = {Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected spin textures with promising prospects for applications in data storage. They can form a lattice state due to competing magnetic interactions and are commonly found in a small region of the temperature—magnetic field phase diagram. Recent work has demonstrated that these magnetic quasi-particles fluctuate at the μeV energy scale. Here, we use a coherent x-ray correlation method at an x-ray free-electron laser to investigate these fluctuations in a magnetic phase coexistence region near a first-order transition boundary where fluctuations are not expected to play a major role. Surprisingly, we find that the relaxation of the intermediate scattering function at this transition differs significantly compared to that deep in the skyrmion lattice phase. The observation of a compressed exponential behavior suggests solid-like dynamics, often associated with jamming. We assign this behavior to disorder and the phase coexistence observed in a narrow field-window near the transition, which can cause fluctuations that lead to glassy behavior.},
doi = {10.1063/5.0004879},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
number = 18,
volume = 116,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon May 04 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Mon May 04 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
Web of Science
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