Room-Temperature Skyrmions in an Antiferromagnet-Based Heterostructure

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.

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b04400

Title: Room-Temperature Skyrmions in an Antiferromagnet-Based Heterostructure

Journal Article · Fri Dec 22 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Nano Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b04400· OSTI ID:1470118

^[1]; Jenkins, Alec ^[2]; Ma, Xin ^[3]; Razavi, Seyed Armin ^[4]; He, Congli ^[4]; Yin, Gen ^[4];

^[4]; He, Qing lin ^[4]; Wu, Hao ^[5]; Li, Wenjing ^[5]; Jiang, Wanjun ^[6];

^[5]; Li, Xiaoqin ^[3]; Bleszynski Jayich, Ania Claire ^[2]; Amiri, Pedram Khalili ^[4];

^[4]

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)

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.

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Research Organization:: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Spins and Heat in Nanoscale Electronic Systems (SHINES)

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

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012670

OSTI ID:: 1470118

Journal Information:: Nano Letters, Vol. 18, 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; ISSN 1530-6984

Publisher:: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 79 works

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