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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 110: Poster Session VIII: Poster to Mini-Symposium: Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction (DMI) in magnetic layered systems

O 110.2: Poster

Thursday, March 4, 2021, 13:30–15:30, P

Stabilizing Zero-Field Skyrmions with Cobalt-decorated Edges in Ultrathin Films — •Jonas Spethmann, Elena Vedmedenko, Roland Wiesendanger, André Kubetzka, and Kirsten von Bergmann — Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, 20355 Hamburg, Germany

Magnetic skyrmions are promising candidates to serve as information carriers in the emerging field of spintronic memory and logic devices. In such devices it is quintessential to prevent the loss of information. One common pathway towards skyrmion destruction is via the edge of the skyrmion material. This could prove detrimental in any potential skyrmion racetrack device, due to the magnus force driving the skyrmions towards the racetrack edge [1]. In our model system, a bilayer of Pd/Fe on the Ir(111) surface [2], skyrmion collapse at the edge becomes the prevalent skyrmion destruction pathway for small external magnetic fields [3]. We modify the Pd/Fe island edge by adding Co to the system and investigate it using spin-polarized STM. The Co-decorated edges strongly affect the magnetic ground state of Pd/Fe, by changing the spin spiral propagation direction. Surprisingly, we also observe single skyrmions and occasionally 2π skyrmions in the magnetic virgin state. Additionally, we find that at fields above 1 T skyrmions can pin to the Co edge without collapsing and utilize spin dynamics simulations to investigate this phenomenon.

[1] W. Jiang et al., Nature Physics 13, 162-169 (2018).

[2] N. Romming et al., Science 341, 636-639 (2013).

[3] P. F. Bessarab et al., Sci. Rep. 8, 3433 (2018).