Influence of the Hall-bar geometry on texture-induced topological spin transport in two-dimensional Rashba spin–orbit ferromagnets

Abstract

While the recent prediction and observation of magnetic skyrmions bears inspiring promise for next-generation spintronic devices, how to detect and track their position becomes an important issue. In this work, we investigate the spin transport in a two-dimensional magnetic nanoribbon with the Hall-bar geometry in the presence of Rashba spin–orbit coupling and magnetic skyrmions. We employ the Kwant tight-binding code to compute the Hall conductance and local spin-polarized current density. We consider two versions of the model: One with single skyrmion and one with two separate skyrmions. It is found that the size and position of the skyrmions strongly modulate the Hall conductance near the Hall-bar position. The geometry of the Hall bar also has a strong influence on the Hall conductance of the system. With the decreasing of the width of Hall leads, the peak of Hall conductance becomes sharper. We also show the spatial distribution of the spin-polarized current density around a skyrmion located at different positions. We extend this study toward two separate skyrmions, where the Hall conductance also reveals a sizable dependence on the position of the skyrmions and their distance. Our numerical analysis offers the possibility of electrically detecting the skyrmion position, which could have potential applications in ultrahigh-density storage design.