Title: Creation of Magnetic Skyrmion Bubble Lattices by Ultrafast Laser in Ultrathin Films

Journal Article · · Nano Letters

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically nontrivial spin textures which hold great promise as stable information carriers in spintronic devices at the nanoscale. One of the major challenges for developing novel skyrmion-based memory and logic devices is fast and controlled creation of magnetic skyrmions at ambient conditions. Here we demonstrate controlled generation of skyrmion bubbles and skyrmion bubble lattices from a ferromagnetic state in sputtered ultrathin magnetic films at room temperature by a single ultrafast (35 fs) laser pulse. The skyrmion bubble density increases with the laser fluence, and it finally becomes saturated, forming disordered hexagonal lattices. Moreover, we present that the skyrmion bubble lattice configuration leads to enhanced topological stability as compared to isolated skyrmions, suggesting its promising use in data storage. Our findings shed light on the optical approach to the skyrmion bubble lattice in commonly accessible materials, paving the road toward the emerging skyrmion-based memory and synaptic devices.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
French National Research Agency (ANR); National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1638189
Journal Information:
Nano Letters, Journal Name: Nano Letters Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 18; ISSN 1530-6984
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (75)

The Theory of Cylindrical Magnetic Domains journal December 1969
The stability of vortex-like structures in uniaxial ferromagnets journal April 1999
Magnetic skyrmions in confined geometries: Effect of the magnetic field and the disorder journal June 2018
Room-Temperature Creation and Spin–Orbit Torque Manipulation of Skyrmions in Thin Films with Engineered Asymmetry journal February 2016
Room-Temperature Skyrmion Shift Device for Memory Application journal December 2016
The Skyrmion Switch: Turning Magnetic Skyrmion Bubbles on and off with an Electric Field journal April 2017
Room-Temperature Current-Induced Generation and Motion of sub-100 nm Skyrmions journal March 2017
Detection of Short-Waved Spin Waves in Individual Microscopic Spin-Wave Waveguides Using the Inverse Spin Hall Effect journal November 2017
Large-Voltage Tuning of Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya Interactions: A Route toward Dynamic Control of Skyrmion Chirality journal June 2018
Chiral magnetic order at surfaces driven by inversion asymmetry journal May 2007
Real-space observation of a two-dimensional skyrmion crystal journal June 2010
Perpendicular switching of a single ferromagnetic layer induced by in-plane current injection journal August 2011
Observation of stable Néel skyrmions in cobalt/palladium multilayers with Lorentz transmission electron microscopy journal March 2017
Current-induced skyrmion generation and dynamics in symmetric bilayers journal June 2017
Creation of skyrmions and antiskyrmions by local heating journal October 2014
The nature of domain walls in ultrathin ferromagnets revealed by scanning nanomagnetometry journal April 2015
Magnetic microscopy and topological stability of homochiral Néel domain walls in a Pt/Co/AlOx trilayer journal December 2015
Current-induced magnetization reversal in nanopillars with perpendicular anisotropy journal February 2006
Explaining the paradoxical diversity of ultrafast laser-induced demagnetization journal December 2009
Near room-temperature formation of a skyrmion crystal in thin-films of the helimagnet FeGe journal December 2010
Domain wall depinning governed by the spin Hall effect journal February 2013
Current-driven dynamics of chiral ferromagnetic domain walls journal June 2013
Engineered materials for all-optical helicity-dependent magnetic switching journal February 2014
Observation of room-temperature magnetic skyrmions and their current-driven dynamics in ultrathin metallic ferromagnets journal February 2016
Tunable room-temperature magnetic skyrmions in Ir/Fe/Co/Pt multilayers journal July 2017
Chiral spin torque at magnetic domain walls journal June 2013
Symmetry and magnitude of spin–orbit torques in ferromagnetic heterostructures journal July 2013
Towards control of the size and helicity of skyrmions in helimagnetic alloys by spin–orbit coupling journal September 2013
Nucleation, stability and current-induced motion of isolated magnetic skyrmions in nanostructures journal October 2013
Topological properties and dynamics of magnetic skyrmions journal December 2013
Skyrmions on the track journal March 2013
Domain-wall velocities of up to 750 m s−1 driven by exchange-coupling torque in synthetic antiferromagnets journal February 2015
Additive interfacial chiral interaction in multilayers for stabilization of small individual skyrmions at room temperature journal January 2016
Room-temperature chiral magnetic skyrmions in ultrathin magnetic nanostructures journal January 2016
Field-free deterministic ultrafast creation of magnetic skyrmions by spin–orbit torques journal October 2017
Spontaneous atomic-scale magnetic skyrmion lattice in two dimensions journal July 2011
Soliton-like magnetic domain wall motion induced by the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction journal November 2015
Direct observation of the skyrmion Hall effect journal September 2016
Skyrmion Hall effect revealed by direct time-resolved X-ray microscopy journal December 2016
Theory of isolated magnetic skyrmions: From fundamentals to room temperature applications journal March 2018
Deterministic creation and deletion of a single magnetic skyrmion observed by direct time-resolved X-ray microscopy journal May 2018
A strategy for the design of skyrmion racetrack memories journal October 2014
Skyrmion-skyrmion and skyrmion-edge repulsions in skyrmion-based racetrack memory journal January 2015
Ultrafast magnetization switching by spin-orbit torques journal November 2014
Microscopic model for all optical switching in ferromagnets journal April 2016
Topological effects in nanomagnetism: from superparamagnetism to chiral quantum solitons journal February 2012
Magnetic skyrmion-based synaptic devices journal January 2017
Anisotropic Superexchange Interaction and Weak Ferromagnetism journal October 1960
Magnetic Skyrmion as a Nonlinear Resistive Element: A Potential Building Block for Reservoir Computing journal January 2018
Irreversibility, reversibility, and thermal equilibrium in domain patterns of Fe films with perpendicular magnetization journal November 2010
Particle model for skyrmions in metallic chiral magnets: Dynamics, pinning, and creep journal June 2013
Skyrmion confinement in ultrathin film nanostructures in the presence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction journal November 2013
Asymmetric magnetic domain-wall motion by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction journal December 2013
Topological charge analysis of ultrafast single skyrmion creation journal May 2016
Path to collapse for an isolated Néel skyrmion journal June 2016
Two types of all-optical magnetization switching mechanisms using femtosecond laser pulses journal August 2016
Domain size criterion for the observation of all-optical helicity-dependent switching in magnetic thin films journal August 2016
Ultrafast generation of skyrmionic defects with vortex beams: Printing laser profiles on magnets journal February 2017
Manipulating exchange bias using all-optical helicity-dependent switching journal October 2017
Helicity-dependent all-optical domain wall motion in ferromagnetic thin films journal February 2018
Current-Induced Switching of Perpendicularly Magnetized Magnetic Layers Using Spin Torque from the Spin Hall Effect journal August 2012
Novel Chiral Magnetic Domain Wall Structure in Fe / Ni / Cu ( 001 ) Films journal April 2013
Laser-Induced Magnetic Nanostructures with Tunable Topological Properties journal April 2013
Chirality-Induced Asymmetric Magnetic Nucleation in Pt / Co / AlO x Ultrathin Microstructures journal July 2014
Field-Dependent Size and Shape of Single Magnetic Skyrmions journal May 2015
Laser-Induced Skyrmion Writing and Erasing in an Ultrafast Cryo-Lorentz Transmission Electron Microscope journal March 2018
Magnetic Tunnel Junctions for Spintronic Memories and Beyond journal May 2007
Magnetic Domain-Wall Racetrack Memory journal April 2008
Skyrmion Lattice in a Chiral Magnet journal February 2009
Writing and Deleting Single Magnetic Skyrmions journal August 2013
All-optical control of ferromagnetic thin films and nanostructures journal August 2014
Blowing magnetic skyrmion bubbles journal June 2015
Dynamics of Dzyaloshinskii domain walls in ultrathin magnetic films journal December 2012
Magnetic and Transport Properties of Metallic Multilayers journal January 1991
OOMMF User's Guide, Version 1.0 report September 1999

Cited By (8)

Skyrmion-electronics: writing, deleting, reading and processing magnetic skyrmions toward spintronic applications journal January 2020
Skyrmion formation in nanodiscs using magnetic force microscopy tip preprint January 2020
Spin-current-mediated rapid magnon localisation and coalescence after ultrafast optical pumping of ferrimagnetic alloys journal April 2019
Skyrmion-electronics: writing, deleting, reading and processing magnetic skyrmions toward spintronic applications journal January 2020
Generation and Hall effect of skyrmions enabled using nonmagnetic point contacts journal November 2019
Mapping different skyrmion phases in double wedges of Ta/FeCoB/TaOx trilayers journal December 2019
Thermal nucleation and high-resolution imaging of submicrometer magnetic bubbles in thin thulium iron garnet films with perpendicular anisotropy journal January 2020
Generation and Hall effect of skyrmions enabled via using nonmagnetic point contacts text January 2019