Chiral Surface Twists and Skyrmion Stability in Nanolayers of Cubic Helimagnets

Leonov, A. O.; Togawa, Yoshihiko; Monchesky, T. L.; Bogdanov, A. N.; Kishine, J.; Kousaka, Yusuke; Miyagawa, Marina; Koyama, Tsukasa; Akimitsu, Jun; Koyama, T; Harada, Ken; Mori, Shigeo; McGrouther, Damien; Lamb, R. J.; Krajnak, Matus; McVitie, S.; Stamps, R. L.; Inoue, Katsuya

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.117.087202

Cited by 127 publications

(154 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(74 reference statements)

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“…3(d) [20] indicate that if the material is initially in the skyrmion lattice phase, an increase in magnetic field will first create the cone phase and any coexistence should be between these two phases. Furthermore, coexisting phases like those we see here can only result from a first order transition whereas a transition from the skyrmion lattice to the saturated state should be a second order process which occurs via the gradual expansion of the period of the skyrmion lattice [4,20].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct observation of attractive skyrmions and skyrmion clusters in the cubic helimagnet Cu2OSeO3

Loudon¹,

Leonov

Bogdanov

et al. 2018

Phys. Rev. B

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Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. Publisher statement: © 2018 American Physical Society A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or, version of record, if you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the 'permanent WRAP URL' above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. We report the discovery of attractive magnetic skyrmions and their clusters in noncentrosymmetric ferromagnets. These three-dimensional solitons have been predicted to exist in the cone phase of chiral ferromagnets [J. Phys: Condens. Matter 28, 35LT01 (2016)] and are fundamentally different from the more common repulsive axisymmetric skyrmions that occur in the magnetically saturated state. We present real-space images of these skyrmion clusters in thin (∼70 nm) single-crystal samples of Cu 2 OSeO 3 taken using transmission electron microscopy and develop a phenomenological theory describing this type of skyrmion.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct observation of attractive skyrmions and skyrmion clusters in the cubic helimagnet Cu2OSeO3

Loudon¹,

Leonov

Bogdanov

et al. 2018

Phys. Rev. B

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“…Such edge spin configurations preserve the magnetic chirality around the sample edges and play a key role in current-induced Skyrmion motion in nanostripes [8]. Moreover, the enhanced stability of Skyrmions in systems that have reduced dimensions has been attributed theoretically to the presence of peculiar spin textures at chiral boundaries (surfaces and edges) [9,10]. Experimentally, chiral edge states have been inferred indirectly from magnetotransport measurements [11] and using magnetic imaging [12].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Figure 1(b) shows a three-dimensional (3D) Skyrmion with chiral surface twists, which are characterized by an in-plane rotation angle θ. Such twisted spin textures at the surface have been predicted to lower Skyrmion energetics and to provide thermodynamical stability of a Skyrmion lattice against the formation of conical states in a thin film [9,10].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantification of Magnetic Surface and Edge States in an FeGe Nanostripe by Off-Axis Electron Holography

Song

Caron

et al. 2018

Phys. Rev. Lett.

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Whereas theoretical investigations have revealed the significant influence of magnetic surface and edge states on Skyrmonic spin texture in chiral magnets, experimental studies of such chiral states remain elusive. Here, we study chiral edge states in an FeGe nanostripe experimentally using off-axis electron holography. Our results reveal the magnetic-field-driven formation of chiral edge states and their penetration lengths at 95 and 240 K. We determine values of saturation magnetization M S by analyzing the projected in-plane magnetization distributions of helices and Skyrmions. Values of M S inferred for Skyrmions are lower by a few percent than those for helices. We attribute this difference to the presence of chiral surface states, which are predicted theoretically in a three-dimensional Skyrmion model. Our experiments provide direct quantitative measurements of magnetic chiral boundary states and highlight the applicability of state-ofthe-art electron holography for the study of complex spin textures in nanostructures.

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“…The latter likely plays the dominant role in creating stable skyrmions in free-standing chiral magnetic nano-crystals [21][22][23][24] . Studies of the thickness dependence of the magnetic structure in wedgeshaped specimens reveals the influence of confinement on the skyrmions' stability 25,26 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neutron study of in-plane skyrmions in MnSi thin films

et al. 2017

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The magnetic structure of the in-plane skyrmions in epitaxial MnSi/Si(111) thin films is probed in three dimensions by the combination of polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) and small angle neutron scattering (SANS). We demonstrate that skyrmions exist in a region of the phase diagram above at temperature of 10 K. PNR shows the skyrmions are confined to the middle of the film due to the potential well formed by the surface twists. However, SANS shows that there is considerable disorder within the plane indicating that the magnetic structure is a 2D skyrmion glass.

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Chiral Surface Twists and Skyrmion Stability in Nanolayers of Cubic Helimagnets

Cited by 127 publications

References 30 publications

Direct observation of attractive skyrmions and skyrmion clusters in the cubic helimagnet Cu2OSeO3

Direct observation of attractive skyrmions and skyrmion clusters in the cubic helimagnet Cu2OSeO3

Quantification of Magnetic Surface and Edge States in an FeGe Nanostripe by Off-Axis Electron Holography

Neutron study of in-plane skyrmions in MnSi thin films

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