Antiferromagnetic Half-skyrmions and Bimerons at room temperature

ORAL

Abstract

In the quest for post-CMOS technologies, ferromagnetic skyrmions and their anti-particles have shown great promise as topologically protected solitonic information carriers in memory-in-logic or neuromorphic devices, and the deleterious skyrmion Hall effect when driven by spin torques have thus far inhibited their practical implementations. Antiferromagnetic analogues, which are predicted to demonstrate relativistic dynamics, fast deflection-free motion and size scaling have recently come into intense focus, but their experimental realizations in natural antiferromagnetic systems are yet to emerge. Here, we demonstrate a family of topological antiferromagnetic spin-textures in α-Fe2O3 – an earth-abundant oxide – capped with a Pt over-layer. By exploiting a first-order analogue of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, we stabilize exotic merons-antimerons and bimerons, which can be erased by magnetic fields and re-generated by temperature cycling. These structures have sizes in the range ~100 nm that can be chemically controlled via precise tuning of the exchange and anisotropy, with pathway for scaling. Driven by spin torques from the heavy-metal over-layer, some of these AFM textures could emerge as prime candidates for low-energy antiferromagnetic spintronics at room temperature.

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Presenters

  • Paolo G. Radaelli

    • University of Oxford
    • Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford

Authors

  • Hariom Jani

    • Natl Univ of Singapore

  • Jheng-Cyuan Lin

    • University of Oxford

  • Jiahao Chen

    • University of Oxford

  • Jack Harrison

    • University of Oxford

  • Francesco Maccherozzi

    • Diamond Light Source, United Kingdom
    • Diamond Light Source

  • Jonathon Schad

    • University of Wisconsin, Madison
    • University of Wisconsin Madison

  • Saurav Prakash

    • Natl Univ of Singapore

  • Chang-Beom Eom

    • Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    • University of Wisconsin, Madison
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Maddison
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin
    • Department of Materials Science Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison,, University of Wisconsin
    • Material Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    • University of Wisconsin-Madison
    • University of Wisconsin-Maddison
    • University of Wisconsin - Madison
    • University of Wisconsin Madison
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Ariando Ariando

    • Natl Univ of Singapore
    • Department of Physics, National University of Singapore

  • Thirumalai Venkatesan

    • Neocera Magma
    • Natl Univ of Singapore

  • Paolo G. Radaelli

    • University of Oxford
    • Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford