Ferromagnetic resonance of skyrmions in thin film multilayers

Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions are chiral whirling textures of magnetization with a non-trivial topology. Their nanometric size and particle-like behavior has engendered huge interest for their potential applications in memory and logic devices. The observation of magnetic skyrmions at room temperature has triggered extensive research to decipher their various static and dynamic properties which is crucial for their eventual implementation in spintronic devices [1]. In the case of ultra-thin multilayer films consisting of heavy metal_(HM)/ferromagnet_(FM)/insulator_(I), skyrmions are primarily stabilized by interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (iDMI) in combination with perpendicular anisotropy, dipolar, exchange and Zeeman energies, where each of these contributions can be finely tuned [2]. The non-trivial skyrmion topology and its emergent electrodynamics is at the heart of phenomena like the skyrmion Hall effect and the topological Hall effect. Another interesting consequence of the skyrmions topology is reflected in their unique spectral signatures given by the gyrotropic rotational modes [3] (clockwise and counter-clockwise) and the breathing mode [4], when excited by an in-plane or an out-of-plane rf magnetic field. These unique dynamics open up new prospects for skyrmion-based microwave detectors [5] and nano-oscillators [6].However, the experimental observation of skyrmion resonance dynamics remains limited. So far, skyrmion eigen modes have been mainly observed at low temperature in bulk systems [7]. Only few studies have been carried out in thin films, but with zero iDMI [8]. The experimental observation of the excitation modes of homochiral skyrmions stabilized by iDMI at room temperature remains elusive and challenging owing to usually elevated damping parameter and material inhomogeneities in HM/FM/I systems.Here, we study the magnetization dynamics in a [Pt/CoFeB/AlOx]×20 multilayer deposited by sputtering. First, the system is optimized by tuning the Pt and CoFeB thicknesses to host magnetic skyrmions at room temperature, along with a minimized damping parameter α ~ 0.02, measured by ferromagnetic resonance (FMR). The quasi-static magnetic domain configuration is observed by magnetic force microscopy (MFM) where on sweeping an out-of-plane (OP) magnetic field from saturation to zero, random skyrmion nucleation occurs, forming a lattice structure which then breaks into a mixture of skyrmions and stripes at lower fields; finally transforming into labyrinthine domains as shown in Fig. 1.The dynamic response of the system is measured by Vector Network Analyser (VNA) FMR with an rf field applied in-plane and varied over a frequency (f) range of 0.1-20 GHz, and an OP dc magnetic field swept from -0.55 T to +0.55 T. The frequency-field dispersions indicated in Fig. 2 (a) show several resonant modes corresponding to the domain configurations observed by MFM at the respective applied fields. At fields above the saturation, the well-known Kittel mode is observed, pertaining to uniform precession. Below saturation, distinct modes arise in the resonance spectrum with both positive and negative dispersions at low (f<2GHz), medium (2<f<7GHz) and high frequencies (f>7). The low frequency mode is observed on increasing the field towards saturation as can be seen on comparing Fig. 2 (a) and (b).Micromagnetic simulations further give an insight into the mechanisms involved in the subsequent dynamic behavior of the skyrmions. We observe that the low frequency mode (LFM) is due to the excitations localized at the skyrmion edges, corresponding to the breathing dynamics. The medium frequency mode (MM), on the other hand, arises due to the localized excitations in the inter-skyrmion region, i.e. the non-reversed magnetic zone, and has a negative dispersion. The origin of the high frequency mode (HFM) lies in the excitations across the skyrmion lattice and corresponds to the spin waves travelling across both the reversed and non-reversed regions. These latter modes (MM and HFM) are hence attributed to the magnonic cystal modes of the skyrmion lattice. This observation opens up new possibilities of creating and designing dynamically modulable skyrmion-based magnonic crystals at room temperature. **