Stabilizing spin spirals and isolated skyrmions at low magnetic field exploiting vanishing magnetic anisotropy

 · Invited

Abstract

The stabilization of non-collinear chiral magnetic structure is usually attributed to a large Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). DMI is enhanced at surfaces and interfaces via the hybridization of the magnetic atoms with 5d elements. Here, we show that a strong DMI is not a necessary condition to obtain a chiral magnetic order in ultra-thin films. Our spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy study show that Co/Ru(0001) possesses a spin spiral ground state, although the DMI is weak. Under moderated magnetic field (≈150 mT) isolated skyrmion can be stabilized. We attribute the stability of this spin texture to the vanishing of the magnetic anisotropy energy.

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Presenters

  • Marie Herve

    • Physikalisches Institut, karlsruhe institute of technology

Authors

  • Marie Herve

    • Physikalisches Institut, karlsruhe institute of technology

  • Bertrand Dupé

    • Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz

  • Rafael Lopes

    • Serviço de Nanotecnologia Laboratório de Nanoscopia, Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear

  • Maximiliano Martins

    • Serviço de Nanotecnologia Laboratório de Nanoscopia, Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear

  • Timofey Balashov

    • Physikalisches Institut, karlsruhe institute of technology

  • Lukas Gerhard

    • Institute of Nanotechnology, karlsruhe institute of technology

  • Jairo Sinova

    • Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz

  • Wulf wulfhekel

    • Physikalisches Institut, karlsruhe institute of technology