Observation of Skyrmions in a Multiferroic Material

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

A magnetic skyrmion is a topologically stable particle-like object that appears as a vortex-like spin texture at the nanometer scale in a chiral-lattice magnet. Skyrmions have been observed in metallic materials, where they are controllable by electric currents. Here, we report the experimental discovery of magnetoelectric skyrmions in an insulating chiral-lattice magnet Cu(2)OSeO(3) through Lorentz transmission electron microscopy and magnetic susceptibility measurements. We find that the skyrmion can magnetically induce electric polarization. The observed magnetoelectric coupling may potentially enable the manipulation of the skyrmion by an external electric field without losses due to joule heating.

Related collections

Most cited references 26

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Real-space observation of a two-dimensional skyrmion crystal.

X. Yu, Y Onose, N Kanazawa … (2010)

Crystal order is not restricted to the periodic atomic array, but can also be found in electronic systems such as the Wigner crystal or in the form of orbital order, stripe order and magnetic order. In the case of magnetic order, spins align parallel to each other in ferromagnets and antiparallel in antiferromagnets. In other, less conventional, cases, spins can sometimes form highly nontrivial structures called spin textures. Among them is the unusual, topologically stable skyrmion spin texture, in which the spins point in all the directions wrapping a sphere. The skyrmion configuration in a magnetic solid is anticipated to produce unconventional spin-electronic phenomena such as the topological Hall effect. The crystallization of skyrmions as driven by thermal fluctuations has recently been confirmed in a narrow region of the temperature/magnetic field (T-B) phase diagram in neutron scattering studies of the three-dimensional helical magnets MnSi (ref. 17) and Fe(1-x)Co(x)Si (ref. 22). Here we report real-space imaging of a two-dimensional skyrmion lattice in a thin film of Fe(0.5)Co(0.5)Si using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy. With a magnetic field of 50-70 mT applied normal to the film, we observe skyrmions in the form of a hexagonal arrangement of swirling spin textures, with a lattice spacing of 90 nm. The related T-B phase diagram is found to be in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations. In this two-dimensional case, the skyrmion crystal seems very stable and appears over a wide range of the phase diagram, including near zero temperature. Such a controlled nanometre-scale spin topology in a thin film may be useful in observing unconventional magneto-transport effects.

0 comments Cited 1335 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Magnetic control of ferroelectric polarization.

T. Kimura, T. Goto, H Shintani … (2003)

The magnetoelectric effect--the induction of magnetization by means of an electric field and induction of polarization by means of a magnetic field--was first presumed to exist by Pierre Curie, and subsequently attracted a great deal of interest in the 1960s and 1970s (refs 2-4). More recently, related studies on magnetic ferroelectrics have signalled a revival of interest in this phenomenon. From a technological point of view, the mutual control of electric and magnetic properties is an attractive possibility, but the number of candidate materials is limited and the effects are typically too small to be useful in applications. Here we report the discovery of ferroelectricity in a perovskite manganite, TbMnO3, where the effect of spin frustration causes sinusoidal antiferromagnetic ordering. The modulated magnetic structure is accompanied by a magnetoelastically induced lattice modulation, and with the emergence of a spontaneous polarization. In the magnetic ferroelectric TbMnO3, we found gigantic magnetoelectric and magnetocapacitance effects, which can be attributed to switching of the electric polarization induced by magnetic fields. Frustrated spin systems therefore provide a new area to search for magnetoelectric media.

0 comments Cited 1115 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Multiferroics: a magnetic twist for ferroelectricity.

Sang-Wook Cheong, Maxim Mostovoy (2007)

Magnetism and ferroelectricity are essential to many forms of current technology, and the quest for multiferroic materials, where these two phenomena are intimately coupled, is of great technological and fundamental importance. Ferroelectricity and magnetism tend to be mutually exclusive and interact weakly with each other when they coexist. The exciting new development is the discovery that even a weak magnetoelectric interaction can lead to spectacular cross-coupling effects when it induces electric polarization in a magnetically ordered state. Such magnetic ferroelectricity, showing an unprecedented sensitivity to ap plied magnetic fields, occurs in 'frustrated magnets' with competing interactions between spins and complex magnetic orders. We summarize key experimental findings and the current theoretical understanding of these phenomena, which have great potential for tuneable multifunctional devices.

0 comments Cited 911 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Title: Science

Abbreviated Title: Science

Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

ISSN (Print): 0036-8075

ISSN (Electronic): 1095-9203

Publication date Created: April 12 2012

Publication date Created: April 13 2012

Publication date (Electronic): April 12 2012

Publication date (Print): April 13 2012

Volume: 336

Issue: 6078

Pages: 198-201

Article

DOI: 10.1126/science.1214143

PubMed ID: 22499941

SO-VID: 25be13d4-4d5e-4cbd-a848-341b8050f5c4

History

Data availability:

Observation of Skyrmions in a Multiferroic Material

Read this article at

Abstract

Related collections

Multimodal Learning Material

Most cited references 26

Real-space observation of a two-dimensional skyrmion crystal.

Magnetic control of ferroelectric polarization.

Multiferroics: a magnetic twist for ferroelectricity.

Author and article information

Journal

Article

History

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 4,914

Cited by 529