Manipulation of magnetic skyrmions in a locally modified synthetic antiferromagnetic racetrack

Abstract

In skyrmion-based racetrack memories, the information encoded by skyrmions may be destroyed due to the skyrmion Hall effect, which can be surmounted by using synthetic antiferromagnetic racetracks. Hence, the manipulation of skyrmions in synthetic antiferromagnetic racetracks is important for practical applications. Here, we computationally study the interaction between a pair of skyrmions and a locally modified region in a synthetic antiferromagnetic racetrack, where the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy or thickness is locally adjusted to be different from that of the rest region of the racetrack. It is found that the skyrmions can be attracted, repelled, and even trapped by the locally modified region in a controllable manner. Besides, we demonstrate that the skyrmion location can be precisely determined by the locally modified region. The possible manipulation of skyrmions by utilizing locally modified regions in a synthetic antiferromagnetic racetrack may be useful for future skyrmion-based applications.