Spontaneous creation and annihilation dynamics and strain-limited stability of magnetic skyrmions

Magnetic skyrmions are topological magnetic spin structures exhibiting particle-like behaviour. They are of strong interest from a fundamental viewpoint and for application, where they have potential to act as information carriers in future low-power computing technologies. Importantly, skyrmions ha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2020-07, Vol.11 (1), p.3536-3536, Article 3536
Main Authors: Rendell-Bhatti, Frederic, Lamb, Raymond J., van der Jagt, Johannes W., Paterson, Gary W., Swagten, Henk J. M., McGrouther, Damien
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
147/143
639/301/1005/1008
639/301/119/2792/4129
639/301/357/997
639/301/930/2735
Control stability
Deformation
Dynamic stability
Energy
Exchanging
Flux density
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hypothetical particles
Magnetic thin films
multidisciplinary
Particle spin
Particle theory
Phase transitions
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spawning
Topology
Transmission electron microscopy
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Summary:Magnetic skyrmions are topological magnetic spin structures exhibiting particle-like behaviour. They are of strong interest from a fundamental viewpoint and for application, where they have potential to act as information carriers in future low-power computing technologies. Importantly, skyrmions have high physical stability because of topological protection. However, they have potential to deform according to their local energy environment. Here we demonstrate that, in regions of high exchange energy density, skyrmions may exhibit such extreme deformation that spontaneous merging with nearest neighbours or spawning new skyrmions is favoured to attain a lower energy state. Using transmission electron microscopy and a high-speed imaging detector, we observe dynamics involving distinct configurational states, in which transitions are accompanied by spontaneous creation or annihilation of skyrmions. These observations raise important questions regarding the limits of skyrmion stability and topological charge conservation, while also suggesting a means of control of skyrmion creation and annihilation. Skyrmions are spin textures which have integer topological charge. Typically they are very stable. Here, the authors observe the spontaneous creation and annihilation of skyrmions in regions of high exchange energy density, suggesting a limit to skyrmion stability.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-17338-7