Scaling of domain cascades in stripe and skyrmion phases

ORAL

Abstract

The origin of deterministic macroscopic properties often lies in microscopic stochastic motion. Magnetic fluctuations that manifest as domain avalanches and chaotic magnetization jumps exemplify such stochastic motion and have been studied in great detail. Here we report Fourier space studies of avalanches in a system exhibiting competing magnetic stripe and skyrmion phase using a soft X-ray speckle metrology technique. We demonstrate the existence of phase boundaries and underlying critical points in the stripe and skyrmion phases. We found that distinct scaling and universality classes are associated with these domain topologies. The magnitude and frequency of abrupt magnetic domain jumps observed in the stripe phase are dramatically reduced in the skyrmion phase. Our results provide an incisive way to probe and understand phase stability in systems exhibiting complex spin topologies.

*U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences: DE-AC02-05CH11231 (ALS, LBNL and MSMAG), and DE-SC0003678; Department of Atomic Energy, India, Raja Ramanna Fellowship.

Presenters

  • James Lee

    • Sonoma State University

Authors

  • Arnab Singh

    • Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
  • James Lee

    • Sonoma State University
  • Karina E. Avila

    • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Yuan Chen

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Sergio Montoya

    • University of California, San Diego
  • Eric Fullerton

    • University of California, San Diego
    • Center for Magnetic Recording Research, University of California at San Diego
    • Center for Memory and Recording Research, University of California, San Diego
    • CMRR, University of California San Diego
    • Center for Memory and Recording research, UCSD
  • Peter Fischer

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Karin Andrea Dahmen

    • Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Stephen Douglas Kevan

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Milan K. Sanyal

    • Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
  • Sujoy Roy

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory