Manipulating skyrmions in synthetic antiferromagnetic nanowires by magnetic field gradients

Abstract

The effective manipulation of skyrmion motion by magnetic field gradients introduces the technological possibility with skyrmion as information carriers for spintronic applications. Recent studies indicate that the skyrmion Hall effect can be suppressed in a synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) multilayer structure driven by a spin polarized current. In this paper, an analytical model based on Thiele equation is developed to describe the properties of a skyrmion pair in a SAF structure driven by a magnetic field gradient. Combining the analytical solutions with the micromagnetic simulation results, we demonstrate the essential dynamic features of the skyrmion pair as a function of AF coupling and magnetic field gradients, revealing that the skyrmion pair motion could be suppressed by increasing the interlayer antiferromagnetic coupling.