Helium ions put magnetic skyrmions on the track
Résumé
Magnetic skyrmions are deemed to be the forerunners of novel spintronic memory and logic devices. While their observation and their current-driven motion at room temperature have been demonstrated, certain issues regarding their nucleation, stability, pinning and skyrmion Hall effect still need to be overcome to realise functional devices. Here we demonstrate that focused He+-ion-irradiation can be used to create and guide skyrmions in racetracks. We show that the weakening of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in the track defined by ion-irradiation leads to the formation of stable isolated skyrmions. Current-driven skyrmion motion experiments and simulations reveal that the skyrmions move along the irradiated track, resulting in a suppression of the skyrmion Hall effect, and that the skyrmion velocity and confinement can be enhanced by tuning the magnetic properties. These results open up a new path to nucleate and guide skyrmions in racetrack devices.
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