Abstract
We report experimental coupling of chiral magnetism and superconductivity in [IrFeCoPt]/Nb heterostructures. The stray field of skyrmions with radius ≈50 nm is sufficient to nucleate antivortices in a 25nm Nb film, with unique signatures in the magnetization, critical current, and flux dynamics, corroborated via simulations. We also detect a thermally tunable Rashba-Edelstein exchange coupling in the isolated skyrmion phase. This realization of a strongly interacting skyrmion-(anti)vortex system opens a path toward controllable topological hybrid materials, unattainable to date.
Highlights
We report experimental coupling of chiral magnetism and superconductivity in 1⁄2IrFeCoPt=Nb heterostructures
The first originates from the Rashba-Edelstein effect [20]: the skyrmion exchange field combines with interfacial spin-orbit coupling (SOC) to induce circulating spin-polarized supercurrents, which interfere with vortex currents [2,3,21,22,23]
Stray field coupling is enhanced by increasing skyrmion size, whereas exchange coupling requires Rashba-Edelstein andvortex currents to circulate with similar radii
Summary
The first originates from the Rashba-Edelstein effect [20]: the skyrmion exchange field combines with interfacial SOC to induce circulating spin-polarized supercurrents, which interfere with vortex currents [2,3,21,22,23] Stray field coupling is enhanced by increasing skyrmion size, whereas exchange coupling requires Rashba-Edelstein and (anti)vortex currents to circulate with similar radii This corresponds to the condition ξ < rsk < λ [Fig. 1(a)] [3], where ξ, λ are the superconducting coherence and penetration lengths, and rsk is the skyrmion radius. The saturation magnetization of our chiral film μ0Ms 1⁄4 1.82 T exceeds the lower critical field of the Nb film Hc1 ≈ 0.012 T at 2 K (see the Supplemental Material, Total Moment ( J/T) Total Moment ( J/T)
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