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Direct Imaging of a Zero-Field Target Skyrmion and Its Polarity Switch in a Chiral Magnetic Nanodisk

Fengshan Zheng, Hang Li, Shasha Wang, Dongsheng Song, Chiming Jin, Wenshen Wei, András Kovács, Jiadong Zang, Mingliang Tian, Yuheng Zhang, Haifeng Du, and Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski
Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 197205 – Published 10 November 2017
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Abstract

A target Skyrmion is a flux-closed spin texture that has twofold degeneracy and is promising as a binary state in next generation universal memories. Although its formation in nanopatterned chiral magnets has been predicted, its observation has remained challenging. Here, we use off-axis electron holography to record images of target Skyrmions in a 160-nm-diameter nanodisk of the chiral magnet FeGe. We compare experimental measurements with numerical simulations, demonstrate switching between two stable degenerate target Skyrmion ground states that have opposite polarities and rotation senses, and discuss the observed switching mechanism.

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  • Received 28 May 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.197205

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Focus

Key Image

Field-Free Spin Patterns

Published 10 November 2017

A vortex-like magnetic spin structure inside a small disk of material is stable without an external magnetic field and might be useful for information storage or processing.

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Authors & Affiliations

Fengshan Zheng1, Hang Li2, Shasha Wang3,4, Dongsheng Song5, Chiming Jin3,4, Wenshen Wei3,4, András Kovács1, Jiadong Zang2,*, Mingliang Tian3,4, Yuheng Zhang3,4, Haifeng Du3,4,†, and Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski1

  • 1Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany
  • 2Department of Physics, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824, USA
  • 3The Anhui Key Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics at Extreme Conditions, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
  • 4Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Jiangsu Province 210093, China
  • 5National Center for Electron Microscopy in Beijing, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials (MOE) and the State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

  • *Corresponding author. Jiadong.Zang@unh.edu
  • Corresponding author. duhf@hmfl.ac.cn

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Issue

Vol. 119, Iss. 19 — 10 November 2017

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