Spin-transfer Torque and Topological Changes of Magnetic Textures

Abstract

The electric manipulation of magnetic textures in nanostructures, important for applications in spintronics, can be realized through the spin-transfer torque mechanism: a spin-polarized current can modify the magnetization of skyrmions and magnetic vortices, and eventually change the topology of the magnetization. The spin-transfer torque and the intrinsic space and time scales of the topological changes are essentially quantum mechanical. We model the interaction between itinerant and fixed spins with a simple tight-binding hamiltonian in a square lattice. The dynamics is described by the Schrodinger equation for the electrons and the Landau-Lifshitz equation for the evolution of the magnetic texture. We investigate the phenomenology of the topological change of a Belavin-Polyakov skyrmion under the action of a spin-polarized current and show that adding an exchange dissipation term, regularizes the transition towards a ferromagnetic state.