The interesting physics and potential memory technologies resulting from topologically protected spin textures such as skyrmions, has prompted efforts to discover new material systems that can host these kind of magnetic structures. Here we use the highly tunable magnetic properties of amorphous Fe/Gd multilayer films to explore the magnetic properties that lead to dipole-stabilized skyrmions and skyrmion lattices that form from the competition of dipolar field and exchange energy. Using both real space imaging and reciprocal space scattering techniques we determined the range of material properties and magnetic fields where skyrmions form.Micromagnetic modeling closely matches our observation of small skyrmion features (~50 to 70nm) and suggests these class of skyrmions have a rich domain structure that is Bloch like in the center of the film and more Néel like towards each surface. Our results provide a pathway to engineer the formation and controllability of dipole skyrmion phases in a thin film geometry at different temperatures and magnetic fields.

We show that properly engineered amorphous Fe-Gd alloy thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) exhibit bound pairs of like-polarity, opposite helicity skyrmions at room temperature. Magnetic mirror symmetry planes present in the stripe phase, instead of chiral exchange, determine the internal skyrmion structure and the net achirality of the skyrmion phase. Our study shows that stripe domain engineering in amorphous alloy thin films may enable the creation of skyrmion phases with technologically desirable properties.

When engineered on scales much smaller than the operating wavelength, metal-semiconductor nanostructures exhibit properties unobtainable in nature. Namely, a uniaxial optical metamaterial described by a hyperbolic dispersion relation can simultaneously behave as a reflective metal and an absorptive or emissive semiconductor for electromagnetic waves with orthogonal linear polarization states. Using an unconventional multilayer architecture, we demonstrate luminescent hyperbolic metasurfaces, wherein distributed semiconducting quantum wells display extreme absorption and emission polarization anisotropy. Through normally incident micro-photoluminescence measurements, we observe absorption anisotropies greater than a factor of 10 and degree-of-linear polarization of emission >0.9. We observe the modification of emission spectra and, by incorporating wavelength-scale gratings, show a controlled reduction of polarization anisotropy. We verify hyperbolic dispersion with numerical simulations that model the metasurface as a composite nanoscale structure and according to the effective medium approximation. Finally, we experimentally demonstrate >350% emission intensity enhancement relative to the bare semiconducting quantum wells.

Background There has been constant speculation about the association between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and colorectal neoplasia (CN); however, the published results are conflicting. The aims of this study are to systematic search, and assess literature to determine the available evidence on the association between these two conditions. Methods Meta-analysis was conducted based on relevant studies identified through a systematic literature review from PubMed, OvidSP and Cochrane database during January 1980 to July 2011. A combined analysis was performed, followed by a subgroup analyses stratified by the study design, type of colorectal lesions and gender. Publication bias was assessed using the Begg’s and Egger’s tests and visual inspection of funnel plot. Results Eighteen studies were included in the final analysis. Overall, MetS was associated with 34% increase in the risk of CN (summary RR - 1.34, 95% CI 1.24–1.44). The association between MetS and CN was found to be statistically significant in separate analysis for both case-control studies (summary RR -1.58, 95% CI 1.44–1.79) and cohort studies (summary RR – 1.21, 95% CI 1.13–1.29). The association remained significant when analyses were restricted by type of colorectal lesions (colorectal cancer: RR – 1.30, 95% CI 1.18–1.43; colorectal adenoma: RR – 1.37, 95% CI 1.26–1.49). Further subgroup analysis by gender showed significant association between MetS and CN in both male and female population. Conclusion Our meta-analysis showed significant association between presence of MetS and CN. These results may help in identifying high risk individuals at early stage that might benefit from targeted CRC screening intervention.

The dynamic response of dipole skyrmions in Fe/Gd multilayer films is investigated by ferromagnetic resonance measurements and compared to micromagnetic simulations. We detail thickness and temperature dependent studies of the observed modes as well as the effects of magnetic field history on the resonant spectra. Correlation between the modes and the magnetic phase maps constructed from real-space imaging and scattering patterns allows us to conclude the resonant modes arise from local topological features such as dipole skyrmions but does not depend on the collective response of a closed packed lattice of these chiral textures. Using, micromagnetic modeling, we are able to quantitatively reproduce our experimental observations which suggests the existence of localized spin-wave modes that are dependent on the helicity of the dipole skyrmion. We identify four localized spin wave excitations for the skyrmions that are excited under either in-plane or out-of-plane r.f. fields. Lastly we show that dipole skyrmions and non-chiral bubble domains exhibit qualitatively different localized spin wave modes.

Time-resolved magneto-optical imaging reveals that the dynamics of the helicity-dependent alloptical switching (HD-AOS) of Co/Pt ferromagnetic multilayers occurs on the timescales from nanoseconds to seconds. We find HD-AOS proceeds by two stages. First, for an optimized laser fluence, the ultrashort laser pulse demagnetizes the film to 25% of the initial magnetization. Subsequent laser pulses aids nucleation of small reversed domains. The observed nucleation is stochastic and independent of the helicity of laser light. At the second stage circularly polarized light breaks the degeneracy between the magnetic domains promoting a preferred direction of domain wall motion. One circular polarization results in a collapse of the reversed magnetic domains. The other polarization causes the growth of reversed magnetic domain from the nucleation sites, via deterministic displacement of the domain wall resulting in magnetization reversal. This mechanism is supported by further imaging studies of deterministic laser-induced displacement of the domain walls when excited by circular polarized optical pulses.

Topological protection precludes a continuous deformation between topologically inequivalent configurations in a continuum. Motivated by this concept, magnetic skyrmions, topologically nontrivial spin textures, are expected to exhibit the topological stability, thereby offering a prospect as a nanometer-scale non-volatile information carrier. In real materials, however, atomic spins are configured as not continuous but discrete distribution, which raises a fundamental question if the topological stability is indeed preserved for real magnetic skyrmions. Answering this question necessitates a direct comparison between topologically nontrivial and trivial spin textures, but the direct comparison in one sample under the same magnetic fields has been challenging. Here we report how to selectively achieve either a skyrmion state or a topologically trivial bubble state in a single specimen and thereby show how robust the skyrmion structure is in comparison with the bubbles for the first time. We demonstrate that topologically nontrivial magnetic skyrmions show longer lifetimes than trivial bubble structures, evidencing the topological stability in a real discrete system. Our work corroborates the physical importance of the topology in the magnetic materials, which has hitherto been suggested by mathematical arguments, providing an important step towards everdense and more-stable magnetic devices.

We report the observation of room-temperature magnetic skyrmions in Pt/Co/Os/Pt thinfilm heterostructures and their response to electric currents. The magnetic properties are extremely sensitive to inserting thin Os layers between the Co-Pt interface resulting in reduced saturation magnetization, magnetic anisotropy and Curie temperature. The observed skyrmions exist in a narrow temperature, applied-field and layer-thickness range near the spin-reorientation transition from perpendicular to in-plane magnetic anisotropy. The skyrmions have an average diameter of 2.3μm and transport measurements demonstrate these features can be displaced with current densities as low as J = 2x10 4 A/cm 2 and display a skyrmion Hall effect.