Skyrmions in thin films with easy-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy

We demonstrate that chiral skyrmionic magnetization configurations can be found as the minimum energy state in B20 thin film materials with easy-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy with an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the film plane. Our observations contradict results from prior analytic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2016-03, Vol.108 (13)
Main Authors: Vousden, Mark, Albert, Maximilian, Beg, Marijan, Bisotti, Marc-Antonio, Carey, Rebecca, Chernyshenko, Dmitri, Cortés-Ortuño, David, Wang, Weiwei, Hovorka, Ondrej, Marrows, Christopher H., Fangohr, Hans
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anisotropy
Applied physics
Computer simulation
Configurations
Demagnetization
Hypothetical particles
Magnetic fields
Magnetism
Magnetization
Mathematical models
Particle theory
Thin films
Three dimensional models
Time integration
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Summary:We demonstrate that chiral skyrmionic magnetization configurations can be found as the minimum energy state in B20 thin film materials with easy-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy with an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the film plane. Our observations contradict results from prior analytical work, but are compatible with recent experimental investigations. The size of the observed skyrmions increase with the easy-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy. We use a full micromagnetic model including demagnetization and a three-dimensional geometry to find local energy minimum (metastable) magnetization configurations using numerical damped time integration. We explore the phase space of the system and start simulations from a variety of initial magnetization configurations to present a systematic overview of anisotropy and magnetic field parameters for which skyrmions are metastable and global energy minimum (stable) states.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4945262