Litcius/Paper detail

Imaging the spin chirality of ferrimagnetic Néel skyrmions stabilized on topological antiferromagnetic <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mi>Mn</mml:mi><mml:mn>3</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:mi>Sn</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math>

Teng Xu, Zhen Chen, Hengan Zhou, Zidong Wang, Yiqing Dong, Lucía Aballe, Michael Foerster, Pierluigi Gargiani, Manuel Valvidares, David Bracher, Tatiana Savchenko, Armin Kleibert, Riccardo Tomasello, Giovanni Finocchio, Soong-Guen Je, Mi‐Young Im, David A. Muller, Wanjun Jiang

2021Physical Review Materials29 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

Fabricating new skyrmion-hosting materials and characterizing their topological spin textures are crucial for next-generation spintronic devices. Here, the authors successfully stabilize ferrimagnetic Neel-type skyrmions in heavy-metal-free multilayer CoTb films through interfacing with noncollinear antiferromagnet Mn${}_{3}$Sn layers, in which the spin chirality can be controlled by the opposite stacking order. Further, a new Lorentz scanning transmission electron microscopy technique is employed to resolve both the internal spin structure of the skyrmions and their chirality. Their results show how noncollinear topological antiferromagnets can be incorporated to design chiral nanomagnets, and set a possible route for bridging antiferromagnet spintronics with skyrmionics.

Topics & Concepts

SkyrmionSpintronicsFerrimagnetismAntiferromagnetismMaterials scienceChirality (physics)Condensed matter physicsSpin (aerodynamics)Topology (electrical circuits)PhysicsFerromagnetismQuantum mechanicsMagnetizationMagnetic fieldNambu–Jona-Lasinio modelThermodynamicsMathematicsChiral symmetry breakingCombinatoricsQuarkMagnetic properties of thin filmsTopological Materials and PhenomenaMultiferroics and related materials