skip to main content


Title: Strain-mediated voltage-controlled switching of magnetic skyrmions in nanostructures
Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions are swirling spin structures stabilized typically by the Dyzaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. The existing control of magnetic skyrmions has often relied on the use of an electric current, which may cause overheating in densely packed devices. Here we demonstrate, using phase-field simulations, that an isolated Néel skyrmion in a magnetic nanodisk can be repeatedly created and deleted by voltage-induced strains from a juxtaposed piezoelectric. Such a skyrmion switching is non-volatile, and consumes only ~0.5 fJ per switching which is about five orders of magnitude smaller than that by current-induced spin-transfer-torques. It is found that the strain-mediated skyrmion creation occurs through an intermediate vortex-like spin structure, and that the skyrmion deletion occurs though a homogenous shrinkage during which the Néel wall is temporarily transformed to a vortex-wall. These findings are expected to stimulate experimental research into strain-mediated voltage control of skyrmions, as well as other chiral spin structures for low-power spintronics.

 
more » « less
Award ID(s):
1629270
NSF-PAR ID:
10153899
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Nature Publishing Group
Date Published:
Journal Name:
npj Computational Materials
Volume:
4
Issue:
1
ISSN:
2057-3960
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. The stability and resonance spectra associated with a domain wall skyrmion embedded within a Néel skyrmion, forming a 1-kink skyrmion, has been studied using micromagnetic simulations. We show that the 1-kink skyrmion is stable over a wide range of fields at moderate strengths of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. By exciting these structures with a broadband magnetic field excitation, we find complex resonance behavior deviating from that of a pure Néel skyrmion. For out-of-plane excitations, the 1-kink skyrmion demonstrates an additional mode relative to that of the Néel skyrmion at reduced amplitude. These consist of low frequency and high frequency modes associated with both a breathing mode and an oscillation of the embedded domain wall skyrmion. Following an in-plane excitation, both Néel and 1-kink skyrmions exhibit a counterclockwise rotational mode with similar frequencies, as well as a higher frequency mode associated with the interaction of the structure with the ferromagnetic background state. These results may help pave the way for exploration of more complex spin structures for magnetic-based microwave devices. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract

    Magnetic skyrmions are topologically nontrivial chiral spin textures that have potential applications in next‐generation energy‐efficient and high‐density spintronic devices. In general, the chiral spins of skyrmions are stabilized by the noncollinear Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI), originating from the inversion symmetry breaking combined with the strong spin–orbit coupling (SOC). Here, the strong SOC from topological insulators (TIs) is utilized to provide a large interfacial DMI in TI/ferrimagnet heterostructures at room temperature, resulting in small‐size (radius ≈ 100 nm) skyrmions in the adjacent ferrimagnet. Antiferromagnetically coupled skyrmion sublattices are observed in the ferrimagnet by element‐resolved scanning transmission X‐ray microscopy, showing the potential of a vanishing skyrmion Hall effect and ultrafast skyrmion dynamics. The line‐scan spin profile of the single skyrmion shows a Néel‐type domain wall structure and a 120 nm size of the 180° domain wall. This work demonstrates the sizable DMI and small skyrmions in TI‐based heterostructures with great promise for low‐energy spintronic devices.

     
    more » « less
  3. Abstract

    Herein, the experimental observation of micrometer‐scale magnetic skyrmions at room temperature in several Pt/Co‐based thin film heterostructures designed to possess low exchange stiffness, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, and a modest interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (iDMI) is reported. It is found both experimentally and by micromagnetic and analytic modeling that a low exchange stiffness and modest iDMI eliminates the energetic penalty associated with forming domain walls in thin films. When the domain wall energy density approaches negative values, the remanent morphology transitions from a uniform state to labyrinthine stripes. A low exchange stiffness, indicated by a sub‐400 K Curie temperature, is achieved in Pt/Co, Pt/Co/Ni, and Pt/Co/Ni/Re structures by reducing the Co thickness to the ultrathin limit (<0.3 nm). Similar effects occur in thicker Pt/Co/NixCu1−xstructures when the Ni layer is alloyed with Cu. At this transition in domain morphology, skyrmion phases are stabilized by small (<1 mT), perpendicular magnetic fields, and skyrmion motion in response to spin–orbit torque is observed. While the temperature and thickness‐induced morphological phase transitions observed are similar to the well‐studied spin reorientation transition that occurs in the ultrathin limit, the underlying energy balances are substantially modified by the presence of an iDMI.

     
    more » « less
  4. Abstract Implementation of skyrmion based energy efficient and high-density data storage devices requires aggressive scaling of skyrmion size. Ferrimagnetic materials are considered to be a suitable platform for this purpose due to their low saturation magnetization (i.e. smaller stray field). However, this method of lowering the saturation magnetization and scaling the lateral size of skyrmions is only applicable where the skyrmions have a smaller lateral dimension compared to the hosting film. Here, we show by performing rigorous micromagnetic simulation that the size of skyrmions, which have lateral dimension comparable to their hosting nanodot can be scaled by increasing saturation magnetization. Also, when the lateral dimension of nanodot is reduced and thereby the skyrmion confined in it is downscaled, there remains a challenge in forming a stable skyrmion with experimentally observed Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) values since this interaction has to facilitate higher canting  per spin to complete a 360° rotation along the diameter. In our study, we found that skyrmions can be formed in 20 nm lateral dimension nanodots with high saturation magnetization (1.30–1.70 MA/m) and DMI values (~ 3 mJ/m 2 ) that have been reported to date. This result could stimulate experiments on implementation of highly dense skyrmion devices. Additionally, using this, we show that voltage controlled magnetic anisotropy based switching mediated by an intermediate skyrmion state can be achieved in the soft layer of a ferromagnetic p-MTJ of lateral dimensions 20 nm with sub 1 fJ/bit energy in the presence of room temperature thermal noise with reasonable DMI ~ 3 mJ/m 2 . 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract

    Magnetization dynamics induced by spin–orbit torques in a heavy‐metal/ferromagnet can potentially be used to design low‐power spintronics and logic devices. Recent computations have suggested that a strain‐mediated spin–orbit torque (SOT) switching in magnetoelectric (ME) heterostructures is fast, energy‐efficient, and permits a deterministic 180° magnetization switching. However, its experimental realization has remained elusive. Here, the coexistence of the strain‐mediated ME coupling and the SOT in a CoFeB/Pt/ferroelectric hybrid structure is shown experimentally. The voltage‐induced strain only slightly modifies the efficiency of SOT generation, but it gives rise to an effective magnetic anisotropy and rotates the magnetic easy axis which eliminates the incubation delay in current‐induced magnetization switching. The phase field simulations show that the electric‐field‐induced effective magnetic anisotropy field can reduce the switching time approximately by a factor of three for SOT in‐plane magnetization switching. It is anticipated that such strain‐mediated ME‐SOT hybrid structures may enable field‐free, ultrafast magnetization switching.

     
    more » « less