Tailoring magnetic energies to form dipole skyrmions and skyrmion lattices

S. A. Montoya, S. Couture, J. J. Chess, J. C. T. Lee, N. Kent, D. Henze, S. K. Sinha, M.-Y. Im, S. D. Kevan, P. Fischer, B. J. McMorran, V. Lomakin, S. Roy, and E. E. Fullerton

Phys. Rev. B 95, 024415 – Published 13 January 2017

Abstract

The interesting physics and potential memory technologies resulting from topologically protected spin textures such as skyrmions have prompted efforts to discover new material systems that can host these kinds of magnetic structures. Here, we use the highly tunable magnetic properties of amorphous Fe/Gd multilayer films to explore the magnetic properties that lead to dipole-stabilized skyrmions and skyrmion lattices that form from the competition of dipolar field and exchange energy. Using both real space imaging and reciprocal space scattering techniques, we determined the range of material properties and magnetic fields where skyrmions form. Micromagnetic modeling closely matches our observation of small skyrmion features (∼50 to 70 nm) and suggests that these classes of skyrmions have a rich domain structure that is Bloch-like in the center of the film and more Néel-like towards each surface. Our results provide a pathway to engineer the formation and controllability of dipole skyrmion phases in a thin film geometry at different temperatures and magnetic fields.

Received 12 August 2016
Revised 28 October 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.024415

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Magnetism

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

S. A. Montoya^1,2, S. Couture^1,2, J. J. Chess³, J. C. T. Lee^3,4, N. Kent⁵, D. Henze⁵, S. K. Sinha⁶, M.-Y. Im^4,7, S. D. Kevan^3,4, P. Fischer^4,5, B. J. McMorran³, V. Lomakin^1,2, S. Roy⁴, and E. E. Fullerton^1,2,*

¹Center for Memory and Recording Research, University of California–San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
²Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California–San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
³Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97401, USA
⁴Center for X-ray Optics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
⁵Physics Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 94056, USA
⁶Department of Physics, University of California–San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
⁷Department of Emerging Materials Science, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology, Daegu, Korea

^*Corresponding author: efullerton@ucsd.edu

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Vol. 95, Iss. 2 — 1 January 2017

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