Increased lifetime of metastable skyrmions by doping

Abstract

Previous observations of metastable magnetic skyrmions have shown that close to the equilibrium pocket the metastable state has a short lifetime, and therefore rapid cooling is required to generate a significant skyrmion population at low temperatures. Here, we report that the lifetime of metastable skyrmions in Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$ is extended by a factor of 50 with the introduction of only 2.5% zinc doping, allowing over 50% of the population to survive when field-cooling at a rate of just 1 K/min. Our systematic study suggests that the lifetime enhancement is due to the removal of spins by the non-magnetic dopant, which entropically limits the number of skyrmion decay pathways. We expect that doping can be exploited to control the lifetime of the metastable SkL state in other chiral magnets, offering a method of engineering skyrmion materials towards application in future devices.

arXiv comment9 Pages, 7 Figures, submission in progress

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Cited by in corpus (22)

• Beyond skyrmions: Review and perspectives of alternative magnetic quasiparticles
• Metastable skyrmion lattices governed by magnetic disorder and anisotropy in $\beta$-Mn-type chiral magnets
• Experimental signatures of quantum and topological states in frustrated magnetism
• Atomistic perspective of long lifetimes of small skyrmions at room temperature
• Topological carnival: electrically-powered motions of toron crystallites in chiral liquid crystals
• A theory of skyrmion crystal formation
• Megahertz dynamics in skyrmion systems probed with muon-spin relaxation
• Skyrmion Alignment and Pinning Effects in a Disordered Multi-Phase Skyrmion Material Co8Zn8Mn4
• Stability and Metastability of Skyrmions in Thin Lamellae of Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$
• Breathing Modes of Skyrmion Strings in a Synthetic Antiferromagnet
• Magnetism and Néel skyrmion dynamics in GaV${}_4$S${}_{8-y}$Se${}_y$
• Tunable gigahertz dynamics of low-temperature skyrmion lattice in a chiral magnet
• Establishing magneto-structural relationships in the solid solutions of the skyrmion hosting family of materials: GaV${}_4$S${}_{8-y}$Se${}_y$
• Pinning of Helimagnetic Phase Transitions in Zn-Substituted Skyrmion Host Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$
• Topological energy barrier for skyrmion lattice formation in MnSi
• Evolution of Helimagnetic Correlations when approaching the Quantum Critical Point of Mn${}_{1-x}$Fe${}_x$Si
• Tailoring energy barriers of Bloch-point-mediated transitions between topological spin textures
• Anisotropy-dependent decay of room temperature metastable skyrmions and a nascent double-$q$ spin texture in Co${}_8$Zn${}_9$Mn${}_3$
• Structure and magnetism of the skyrmion hosting family GaV${}_4$S${}_{8-y}$Se${}_y$ with low levels of substitutions between $0\le y\le 0.5$ and $7.5\le y\le 8$
• Effect of chemical substitution on the skyrmion phase in Cu${}_2$OSeO${}_3$
• Comparison of skyrmion phases between poly and single-crystal MnSi by composite magnetoelectric method
• Simulating magnetic antiskyrmions on the lattice