Abstract
Magnetic skyrmions are particle-like magnetization configurations which can be found in materials with broken inversion symmetry. Their topological nature allows them to circumvent around random pinning sites or impurities as they move within the magnetic layer, which makes them interesting as information carriers in memory devices. However, when the skyrmion is driven by a current, a Magnus force is generated which leads to the skyrmion moving away from the direction of the conduction electron flow. The deflection poses a serious problem to the realization of skyrmion-based devices, as it leads to skyrmion annihilation at the film edges. Here, we show that it is possible to guide the movement of the skyrmion and prevent it from annihilating by surrounding and compressing the skyrmion with strong local potential barriers. The compressed skyrmion receives higher contribution from the spin transfer torque, which results in the significant increase of the skyrmion speed.
Highlights
Magnetic skyrmions are particle-like magnetization configurations which can be found in materials with broken inversion symmetry
When the skyrmion is driven by a current, a Magnus force is generated which leads to the skyrmion moving away from the direction of the conduction electron flow
The skyrmion is driven away from the conduction electron flow direction due to the presence of the Magnus force[12,13], which leads to skyrmion annihilation at the film edges[14]
Summary
In the in-plane driving case, the magnetization dynamics is expressed by the modified Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation (see Eq 6 in Methods section), and the skyrmion is driven mostly by the field-like torque from the. The simulation results show that under the application of in-plane current, the skyrmion moves at an angle with respect to the conduction electron flow when α ≠ ξ 17. Under the injection of perpendicular current, the skyrmion is driven mostly by the torque from the angular momentum transfer as compared to the field-like torque of the STT15. See Supplementary Material for details of the skyrmion driving under perpendicular current injection
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