Magnetic skyrmions are envisioned as ideal candidates as information carriers for future spintronic devices, which have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. In this paper, we design a spintronic device based on antiferromagnetic skyrmions, which is a single antiferromagnetic skyrmion transistor. The transistor consists of a source, a skyrmion island, a barrier region, and a drain. The barrier region is controlled by strains. We demonstrate the feasibility of the transistor by micromagnetic simulations. We find that the number of skyrmions that can pass the barrier region can be controlled by adjusting the strength of strain in the barrier region and the current density. In an appropriate current-strain region, skyrmions can flow from the skyrmion island to the drain one by one. This mechanism offers a promising route for designing tunable skyrmionic-mechanic devices.
In this paper, we present a new approach to reduce the volatility and chaos of the racetrack based on skyrmions. A multilayer (Pt/Co/Cu/Co) structure is designed, where energy potential wells are created in the upper Co layer because of the magnetostatic interaction between the upper Co layers and the Co rings at the bottom layer. The potential wells can store codes that are denoted by skyrmions or a ferromagnetic state. By periodically injecting out-of-plane and in-plane currents, the codes can be generated and controlled to pass through the potential wells one by one. All the codes can be stored in the potential well without loss and chaos, regardless of whether it is code ‘1’ that is denoted by a skyrmion or it is code ‘0’ that is denoted by a ferromagnetic state. The feasibility of this method is proved by micromagnetic simulations. Our design may provide an effective way to reduce signal volatility in skyrmion-based racetrack memory.
Magnetic skyrmions can be used as information carriers in advanced memories, logic gates and computing devices in the future. How to generate skyrmions rapidly in zero field becomes an urgent problem. The application of spin currents will play a major role in promoting the applications of skyrmions in spintronic devices. In this paper, we propose a new mechanism to generate skyrmions by spin currents. A multilayer structure (Pt/Cr2O3/Co/Pt) is designed, where an antiferromagnetic layer (Cr2O3) is inserted into the traditional trilayer structure (Pt/Co/Pt). A spin current generated on the heavy metal layer makes the magnetizations of antiferromagnetic layer oscillate, and then the magnetizations in ferromagnetic layer is driven to oscillate through the interlayer exchange interaction, magnetic skyrmions can be nucleated in Co layer finally. Through this unique combination of spin currents and antiferromagnetic layer, we effectively reduce current density and increase operability, and this application provides more possibilities for future information transmission.
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