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      Antiskyrmions stabilized at interfaces by anisotropic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions

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          Abstract

          Chiral magnets are an emerging class of topological matter harboring localized and topologically protected vortex-like magnetic textures called skyrmions, which are currently under intense scrutiny as an entity for information storage and processing. Here, on the level of micromagnetics we rigorously show that chiral magnets can not only host skyrmions but also antiskyrmions as least energy configurations over all non-trivial homotopy classes. We derive practical criteria for their occurrence and coexistence with skyrmions that can be fulfilled by (110)-oriented interfaces depending on the electronic structure. Relating the electronic structure to an atomistic spin-lattice model by means of density functional calculations and minimizing the energy on a mesoscopic scale by applying spin-relaxation methods, we propose a double layer of Fe grown on a W(110) substrate as a practical example. We conjecture that ultra-thin magnetic films grown on semiconductor or heavy metal substrates with C 2 v symmetry are prototype classes of materials hosting magnetic antiskyrmions.

          Abstract

          Skyrmions, localized defects in the magnetization, can be stabilised in materials by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). Hoffmann et al. predict that, when the DMI is anisotropic, antiskyrmions can be formed and coexist with skyrmions, enabling studies and exploitation of their interactions.

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          Most cited references40

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          Skyrmions on the track.

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            Writing and deleting single magnetic skyrmions.

            Topologically nontrivial spin textures have recently been investigated for spintronic applications. Here, we report on an ultrathin magnetic film in which individual skyrmions can be written and deleted in a controlled fashion with local spin-polarized currents from a scanning tunneling microscope. An external magnetic field is used to tune the energy landscape, and the temperature is adjusted to prevent thermally activated switching between topologically distinct states. Switching rate and direction can then be controlled by the parameters used for current injection. The creation and annihilation of individual magnetic skyrmions demonstrates the potential for topological charge in future information-storage concepts.
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              Magnetic skyrmion logic gates: conversion, duplication and merging of skyrmions

              Magnetic skyrmions, which are topological particle-like excitations in ferromagnets, have attracted a lot of attention recently. Skyrmionics is an attempt to use magnetic skyrmions as information carriers in next generation spintronic devices. Proposals of manipulations and operations of skyrmions are highly desired. Here, we show that the conversion, duplication and merging of isolated skyrmions with different chirality and topology are possible all in one system. We also demonstrate the conversion of a skyrmion into another form of a skyrmion, i.e., a bimeron. We design spin logic gates such as the AND and OR gates based on manipulations of skyrmions. These results provide important guidelines for utilizing the topology of nanoscale spin textures as information carriers in novel magnetic sensors and spin logic devices.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                m.hoffmann@fz-juelich.de
                Journal
                Nat Commun
                Nat Commun
                Nature Communications
                Nature Publishing Group UK (London )
                2041-1723
                21 August 2017
                21 August 2017
                2017
                : 8
                : 308
                Affiliations
                [1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2297 375X, GRID grid.8385.6, Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, , Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, ; 52425 Jülich, Germany
                [2 ]ISNI 0000 0004 0640 0021, GRID grid.14013.37, , Science Institute of the University of Iceland, ; VR-III, 107 Reykjavík, Iceland
                [3 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0728 696X, GRID grid.1957.a, Department of Mathematics I & JARA FIT, , RWTH Aachen University, ; 52056 Aachen, Germany
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8055-6727
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5823-3208
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8684-9627
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7423-0840
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9987-4733
                Article
                313
                10.1038/s41467-017-00313-0
                5566362
                28827700
                4a7e266c-3196-4f20-80ea-31329ce4673f
                © The Author(s) 2017

                Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 19 January 2017
                : 15 June 2017
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