Local control of magnetic interface effects in chiral Ir$|$Co$|$Pt multilayers using Ga${}^{+}$ ion irradiation

Abstract

Skyrmions are topologically protected chiral spin textures that have shown promise as data carriers in future spintronic applications. They can be stabilized by the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (iDMI) in material systems with inversion asymmetry and spin-orbit coupling, such as Ir$|$Co$|$Pt multilayers. The ability to locally tune such interface interactions, and hence the skyrmion energy, could greatly enhance the nucleation and control of skyrmions in racetrack type devices. In this work, we investigate local tuning of the iDMI and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) using focussed Ga${}^{+}$ ion beam irradiation, in an Ir$|$Co$|$Pt multilayer system. We show that the magnitude of the interface contribution to both effects can be significantly reduced by the irradiation with Ga${}^{+}$ ions. This leads to a reduction by a factor two of the domain wall energy density, while still preserving the Néel character of the domain walls. Hence, we postulate that Ga${}^{+}$ ion irradiation is an effective way to locally reduce the energy barrier for skyrmion nucleation, providing a novel pathway for targeted skyrmion nucleation in racetrack type devices.

References in corpus (5)

• Advances in the Physics of Magnetic Skyrmions and Perspective for Technology
• Additive interfacial chiral interaction in multilayers for stabilization of small individual skyrmion at room temperature
• Physical foundations and basic properties of magnetic skyrmions
• Scanning electron microscopy with polarization analysis for multilayered chiral spin textures
• Tailoring interfacial effect in multilayers with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction by helium ion irradiation

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Deterministic Generation and Guided Motion of Magnetic Skyrmions by Focused He${}^{+}$-Ion Irradiation
• Fundamental Theory of Current-Induced Motion of Magnetic Skyrmions
• Enhancing All-Optical Switching of Magnetization by He Ion Irradiation
• Controlling magnetic skyrmion nucleation with Ga+ ion irradiation
• Transformation of a cellular skyrmion to polyomino-like structures
• Control of magnetoelastic coupling in Ni/Fe multilayers using He${}^{+}$ ion irradiation