Room-Temperature Skyrmions in an Antiferromagnet-Based Heterostructure
Abstract
Magnetic skyrmions as swirling spin textures with a nontrivial topology have potential applications as magnetic memory and storage devices. Since the initial discovery of skyrmions in non-centrosymmetric B20 materials, the recent effort has focused on exploring room-temperature skyrmions in heavy metal and ferromagnetic heterostructures, a material platform compatible with existing spintronic manufacturing technology. Here, we report the surprising observation that a room-temperature skyrmion phase can be stabilized in an entirely different class of systems based on antiferromagnetic (AFM) metal and ferromagnetic (FM) metal IrMn/CoFeB heterostructures. There are a number of distinct advantages of exploring skyrmions in such heterostructures including zero-field stabilization, tunable antiferromagnetic order, and sizable spin–orbit torque (SOT) for energy-efficient current manipulation. Through direct spatial imaging of individual skyrmions, quantitative evaluation of the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction, and demonstration of current-driven skyrmion motion, our findings firmly establish the AFM/FM heterostructures as a promising material platform for exploring skyrmion physics and device applications.
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering; Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Beijing National Lab. for Condensed Matter Physics
- Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Dept. of Physics
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Beijing National Lab. for Condensed Matter Physics
- Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). State Key Lab. of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics and Dept. of Physics; Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing (China)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Spins and Heat in Nanoscale Electronic Systems (SHINES)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1470118
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0012670
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Nano Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 18; Journal Issue: 2; Related Information: SHINES partners with University of California, Riverside (lead); Arizona State University; Colorado State University; Johns Hopkins University; University of California Irvine; University of California Los Angeles; University of Texas at Austin; Journal ID: ISSN 1530-6984
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; phonons; thermal conductivity; thermoelectric; spin dynamics; spintronics
Citation Formats
Yu, Guoqiang, Jenkins, Alec, Ma, Xin, Razavi, Seyed Armin, He, Congli, Yin, Gen, Shao, Qiming, He, Qing lin, Wu, Hao, Li, Wenjing, Jiang, Wanjun, Han, Xiufeng, Li, Xiaoqin, Bleszynski Jayich, Ania Claire, Amiri, Pedram Khalili, and Wang, Kang L. Room-Temperature Skyrmions in an Antiferromagnet-Based Heterostructure. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b04400.
Yu, Guoqiang, Jenkins, Alec, Ma, Xin, Razavi, Seyed Armin, He, Congli, Yin, Gen, Shao, Qiming, He, Qing lin, Wu, Hao, Li, Wenjing, Jiang, Wanjun, Han, Xiufeng, Li, Xiaoqin, Bleszynski Jayich, Ania Claire, Amiri, Pedram Khalili, & Wang, Kang L. Room-Temperature Skyrmions in an Antiferromagnet-Based Heterostructure. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b04400
Yu, Guoqiang, Jenkins, Alec, Ma, Xin, Razavi, Seyed Armin, He, Congli, Yin, Gen, Shao, Qiming, He, Qing lin, Wu, Hao, Li, Wenjing, Jiang, Wanjun, Han, Xiufeng, Li, Xiaoqin, Bleszynski Jayich, Ania Claire, Amiri, Pedram Khalili, and Wang, Kang L. Fri .
"Room-Temperature Skyrmions in an Antiferromagnet-Based Heterostructure". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b04400. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1470118.
@article{osti_1470118,
title = {Room-Temperature Skyrmions in an Antiferromagnet-Based Heterostructure},
author = {Yu, Guoqiang and Jenkins, Alec and Ma, Xin and Razavi, Seyed Armin and He, Congli and Yin, Gen and Shao, Qiming and He, Qing lin and Wu, Hao and Li, Wenjing and Jiang, Wanjun and Han, Xiufeng and Li, Xiaoqin and Bleszynski Jayich, Ania Claire and Amiri, Pedram Khalili and Wang, Kang L.},
abstractNote = {Magnetic skyrmions as swirling spin textures with a nontrivial topology have potential applications as magnetic memory and storage devices. Since the initial discovery of skyrmions in non-centrosymmetric B20 materials, the recent effort has focused on exploring room-temperature skyrmions in heavy metal and ferromagnetic heterostructures, a material platform compatible with existing spintronic manufacturing technology. Here, we report the surprising observation that a room-temperature skyrmion phase can be stabilized in an entirely different class of systems based on antiferromagnetic (AFM) metal and ferromagnetic (FM) metal IrMn/CoFeB heterostructures. There are a number of distinct advantages of exploring skyrmions in such heterostructures including zero-field stabilization, tunable antiferromagnetic order, and sizable spin–orbit torque (SOT) for energy-efficient current manipulation. Through direct spatial imaging of individual skyrmions, quantitative evaluation of the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction, and demonstration of current-driven skyrmion motion, our findings firmly establish the AFM/FM heterostructures as a promising material platform for exploring skyrmion physics and device applications.},
doi = {10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b04400},
journal = {Nano Letters},
number = 2,
volume = 18,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Dec 22 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Fri Dec 22 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}
Web of Science
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