Zeissler, K orcid.org/0000-0002-2698-3493, Mruczkiewicz, M orcid.org/0000-0002-3666-7072, Finizio, S orcid.org/0000-0002-1792-0626 et al. (10 more authors) (2017) Pinning and hysteresis in the field dependent diameter evolution of skyrmions in Pt/Co/Ir superlattice stacks. Scientific Reports, 7. 15125.
Abstract
We have imaged N\'eel skyrmion bubbles in perpendicularly magnetised polycrystalline multilayers patterned into 1 \mu m diameter dots, using scanning transmission x-ray microscopy. The skyrmion bubbles can be nucleated by the application of an external magnetic field and are stable at zero field with a diameter of 260 nm. Applying an out of plane field that opposes the magnetisation of the skyrmion bubble core moment applies pressure to the bubble and gradually compresses it to a diameter of approximately 100 nm. On removing the field the skyrmion bubble returns to its original diameter via a hysteretic pathway where most of the expansion occurs in a single abrupt step. This contradicts analytical models of homogeneous materials in which the skyrmion compression and expansion are reversible. Micromagnetic simulations incorporating disorder can explain this behaviour using an effective thickness modulation between 10 nm grains.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) Author (s) 2017. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | cond-mat.mes-hall |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Condensed Matter (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC EP/M000923/1 EU - European Union 665095 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 26 Oct 2017 12:37 |
Last Modified: | 16 Dec 2024 14:11 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Publishing Group |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41598-017-15262-3 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:122811 |