Filming the formation and fluctuation of Skyrmion domains by cryo-Lorentz Transmission Electron Microscopy

Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions are promising candidates as information carriers in logic or storage devices thanks to their robustness, guaranteed by the topological protection, and their nanometric size. Currently, little is known about the influence of parameters such as disorder, defects or external stimuli, on the long-range spatial distribution and temporal evolution of the skyrmion lattice. Here, using a large (7.3x7.3μm${}^2$) single crystal nano-slice of Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$, we image up to 70,000 skyrmions, by means of cryo-Lorentz Transmission Electron Microscopy as a function of the applied magnetic field. The emergence of the skyrmion lattice from the helimagnetic phase is monitored, revealing the existence of a glassy skyrmion phase at the phase transition field, where patches of an octagonally distorted skyrmion lattice are also discovered. In the skyrmion phase, dislocations are shown to cause the emergence and switching between domains with different lattice orientations and the temporal fluctuations of these domains is filmed. These results demonstrate the importance of direct-space and real-time imaging of skyrmion domains for addressing both their long-range topology and stability.

31 pages (16 + 15 supplementary material),17 figures (4 + 13 supplementary material)

References in corpus (12)

• Blowing Magnetic Skyrmion Bubbles
• A new class of chiral materials hosting magnetic skyrmions beyond room temperature
• Skyrmions and Anomalous Hall Effect in a Dzyloshinskii-Moriya Spiral Magnet
• Electric field-induced Skyrmion distortion and giant lattice rotation in the magnetoelectric insulator Cu2OSeO3
• X-ray cross-correlation analysis and local symmetries of disordered systems. I. General theory
• Enhancement of long range correlations in a 2D vortex lattice by incommensurate 1D disorder potential
• X-ray cross-correlation analysis applied to disordered two-dimensional systems
• How the vortex lattice of a superconductor becomes disordered: a study by scanning tunneling spectroscopy
• Order/disorder dynamics in a dodecanethiol-capped gold nanoparticles supracrystal by small-angle ultrafast electron diffraction
• Transverse field muon-spin rotation signature of the skyrmion lattice phase in Cu2OSeO3
• The role of the coherence in the cross-correlation analysis of diffraction patterns from two-dimensional dense mono-disperse systems
• Néel-type Skyrmion Lattice with Confined Orientation in the Polar Magnetic Semiconductor GaV${}_4$S${}_8$

Cited by in corpus (28)

• Statics and Dynamics of Skyrmions Interacting with Pinning: A Review
• AtomAI: A Deep Learning Framework for Analysis of Image and Spectroscopy Data in (Scanning) Transmission Electron Microscopy and Beyond
• Melting a skyrmion lattice topologically: through the hexatic phase to a skyrmion liquid
• Internal structure of hexagonal skyrmion lattices in cubic helimagnets
• Multidomain Skyrmion Lattice State in Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$
• Nanoscale mapping of ultrafast magnetization dynamics with femtosecond Lorentz microscopy
• In situ Electric Field Skyrmion Creation in Magnetoelectric Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$
• History dependence of the magnetic properties of single-crystal Fe${}_{1-x}$Co${}_x$Si
• Magnetic skyrmions and skyrmion clusters in the helical phase of Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$
• Dynamical defects in rotating magnetic skyrmion lattices
• Resonant Elastic X-ray Scattering from the Skyrmion Lattice in Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$
• Imaging three-dimensional magnetic systems with X-rays
• Progress and Prospects in Two-Dimensional Magnetism of van der Waals Materials
• Mechanisms of skyrmion and skyrmion crystal formation from the conical phase
• Weak crystallization of fluctuating skyrmion textures in MnSi
• Thermal stability and irreversibility of skyrmion-lattice phases in Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$
• Formation process of skyrmion lattice domain boundaries: The role of grain boundaries
• Imaging and manipulation of skyrmion lattice domains in Cu2OSeO3
• Spontaneous creation and annihilation dynamics and strain-limited stability of magnetic skyrmions
• An ac-susceptibility study of magnetic relaxation phenomena in the antiskyrmion hosting tetragonal Mn-Pt(Pd)-Sn system
• Lattice-Mediated Magnetic Order Melting in TbMnO3
• Relaxation dynamics of modulated magnetic phases in skyrmion host GaV4S8: an ac magnetic susceptibility study
• Clocking the Onset of Bilayer Coherence in a High-${\mathrm{T}}_{\mathrm{C}}$ Cuprate
• Unpinning the skyrmion lattice in MnSi:Effect of substitutional disorder
• Soft X-ray Vortex Beam detected by In-line Holography
• Microscopic magnetization distribution of Bloch lines in a uniaxial magnet
• Surface pinning and triggered unwinding of skyrmions in a cubic chiral magnet
• Optical Manipulation of Magnetic Vortex Visualized in situ by 4D Electron Microscopy