| Autor: |
Büttner F; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA., Lemesh I; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA., Schneider M; Max-Born-Institut, Max-Born-Straße 2A, 12489 Berlin, Germany., Pfau B; Max-Born-Institut, Max-Born-Straße 2A, 12489 Berlin, Germany., Günther CM; Max-Born-Institut, Max-Born-Straße 2A, 12489 Berlin, Germany.; Institut für Optik und Atomare Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 36, 10623 Berlin, Germany., Hessing P; Max-Born-Institut, Max-Born-Straße 2A, 12489 Berlin, Germany., Geilhufe J; Max-Born-Institut, Max-Born-Straße 2A, 12489 Berlin, Germany., Caretta L; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA., Engel D; Max-Born-Institut, Max-Born-Straße 2A, 12489 Berlin, Germany., Krüger B; Institut für Lasertechnologien in der Medizin und Messtechnik an der Universität Ulm, Helmholtzstraβe 12, 89081 Ulm, Germany., Viefhaus J; Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), FS-PE, Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany., Eisebitt S; Max-Born-Institut, Max-Born-Straße 2A, 12489 Berlin, Germany.; Institut für Optik und Atomare Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 36, 10623 Berlin, Germany., Beach GSD; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. |
| Abstrakt: |
Magnetic skyrmions are stabilized by a combination of external magnetic fields, stray field energies, higher-order exchange interactions and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). The last favours homochiral skyrmions, whose motion is driven by spin-orbit torques and is deterministic, which makes systems with a large DMI relevant for applications. Asymmetric multilayers of non-magnetic heavy metals with strong spin-orbit interactions and transition-metal ferromagnetic layers provide a large and tunable DMI. Also, the non-magnetic heavy metal layer can inject a vertical spin current with transverse spin polarization into the ferromagnetic layer via the spin Hall effect. This leads to torques that can be used to switch the magnetization completely in out-of-plane magnetized ferromagnetic elements, but the switching is deterministic only in the presence of a symmetry-breaking in-plane field. Although spin-orbit torques led to domain nucleation in continuous films and to stochastic nucleation of skyrmions in magnetic tracks, no practical means to create individual skyrmions controllably in an integrated device design at a selected position has been reported yet. Here we demonstrate that sub-nanosecond spin-orbit torque pulses can generate single skyrmions at custom-defined positions in a magnetic racetrack deterministically using the same current path as used for the shifting operation. The effect of the DMI implies that no external in-plane magnetic fields are needed for this aim. This implementation exploits a defect, such as a constriction in the magnetic track, that can serve as a skyrmion generator. The concept is applicable to any track geometry, including three-dimensional designs. |
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