nl7b04400_si_002.avi (237.03 kB)
Room-Temperature Skyrmions in an Antiferromagnet-Based Heterostructure
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posted on 2017-12-22, 00:00 authored by Guoqiang Yu, Alec Jenkins, Xin Ma, Seyed Armin Razavi, Congli He, Gen Yin, Qiming Shao, Qing lin He, Hao Wu, Wenjing Li, Wanjun Jiang, Xiufeng Han, Xiaoqin Li, Ania Claire Bleszynski Jayich, Pedram Khalili Amiri, Kang L. WangMagnetic
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.