Neutron study of in-plane skyrmions in MnSi thin films
ORAL
Abstract
Magnetic skyrmions are vortex-like solitons that can arise in magnetic materials that have broken inversion symmetry. Micromagnetic calculations of thin epitaxial MnSi/Si films show that in-plane fields are capable of stabilizing skyrmions with their axis of symmetry pointing within the plane of the film. A polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) study is presented that reveals the first direct evidence of this largely unexplored species of skyrmions. PNR measurements, which provide a depth profile of the magnetization, are interpreted with the aid of micromagnetic simulations. A potential well formed by the interaction with magnetic surface twists is found to play a key role in the confinement of these objects.
*We acknowledge support from NSERC (Canada). This research was enabled, in part, by support provided by WestGrid and Compute Canada.
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Presenters
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Simon Meynell
- Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University
- Physics, University of California Santa Barbara