R&D: Coexistence of Distinct Skyrmion Phases Observed in Hybrid Ferro/Ferrimagnetic Multilayers

Nature Communications has published an article written by Andrada-Oana Mandru, Oğuz Yıldırım, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, CH-8600, Switzerland, Riccardo Tomasello, Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics, FORTH, Heraklion-Crete, GR-70013, Greece, Paul Heistracher, Christian Doppler Laboratory for Advanced Magnetic Sensing and Materials, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, Vienna, 1090, Austria, Marcos Penedo, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, CH-8600, Switzerland, Anna Giordano, Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Physical Sciences and Earth Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, I-98166, Italy, Dieter Suess, Christian Doppler Laboratory for Advanced Magnetic Sensing and Materials, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, Vienna, 1090, Austria, Giovanni Finocchio, Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Physical Sciences and Earth Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, I-98166, Italy, and Hans Josef Hug, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, CH-8600, Switzerland, and Department of Physics, University of Basel, Basel, CH-4056, Switzerland.

Abstract: “Materials hosting magnetic skyrmions at room temperature could enable compact and energetically-efficient storage such as racetrack memories, where information is coded by the presence/absence of skyrmions forming a moving chain through the device. The skyrmion Hall effect leading to their annihilation at the racetrack edges can be suppressed, for example, by antiferromagnetically-coupled skyrmions. However, avoiding modifications of the inter-skyrmion distances remains challenging. As a solution, a chain of bits could also be encoded by two different solitons, such as a skyrmion and a chiral bobber, with the limitation that it has solely been realized in B20-type materials at low temperatures. Here, we demonstrate that a hybrid ferro/ferri/ferromagnetic multilayer system can host two distinct skyrmion phases at room temperature, namely tubular and partial skyrmions. Furthermore, the tubular skyrmion can be converted into a partial skyrmion. Such systems may serve as a platform for designing memory applications using distinct skyrmion types.“