Skyrmion pinning by disk-shaped defects

Abstract

High precision skyrmion pinning by an intentionally created magnetic structure is important in skyrmion manipulation. Here, we consider skyrmion pinning by various types of disks. Among other findings, we clarify that, in terms of pinning position and pinning potential landscape, one needs to distinguish thin-wall skyrmions from thick-wall skyrmions because of fundamental differences. A skyrmion wall prefers areas with a weaker exchange stiffness, a larger DMI constant, or a smaller magnetic anisotropy while a skyrmion core experiences only the magnetic anisotropy, not exchange stiffness and DMI. Depending on disk type, skyrmion type, and the relative size of the disk (to skyrmion), a skyrmion can be pinned at the symmetric (center) or asymmetric (off-center) point of a disk. In case a skyrmion is pinned by a local energy minimum, thermal agitation can depin the skyrmion, and the pinning lifetime follows an Arrhenius law. Interestingly, when the disk size is comparable to the skyrmion size, the skyrmion deforms greatly such that the skyrmion will shrink or expand to fill the whole disk. These findings should be important for skyrmion manipulations.

References in corpus (25)

• Skyrmion Lattice in a Chiral Magnet
• The design and verification of Mumax3
• Spontaneous Skyrmion Ground States in Magnetic Metals
• Observation of room temperature magnetic skyrmions and their current-driven dynamics in ultrathin Co films
• Blowing Magnetic Skyrmion Bubbles
• Room temperature chiral magnetic skyrmion in ultrathin magnetic nanostructures
• Skyrmion confinement in ultrathin film nanostructures in the presence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction
• Current-induced skyrmion dynamics in constricted geometries
• Creep and flow regimes of magnetic domain wall motion in ultrathin Pt/Co/Pt films with perpendicular anisotropy
• A theory on skyrmion size and profile
• Particle model for skyrmions in metallic chiral magnets: dynamics, pinning and creep
• Capturing of a Magnetic Skyrmion with a Hole
• Thermal stability and topological protection of skyrmions in nanotracks
• Current-driven skyrmion dynamics in disordered films
• Effects of spatially engineered Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in ferromagnetic films
• Pinning and movement of individual nanoscale magnetic skyrmions via defects
• A mechanism to pin skyrmions in chiral magnets
• Simultaneous control of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and magnetic anisotropy in nanomagnetic trilayers
• Field-induced domain wall propagation velocity in magnetic nanowires
• Current-driven skyrmion motion in granular films
• A strategy for the design of skyrmion racetrack memories
• Accelerating, guiding, and compressing skyrmions by defect rails
• Building traps for skyrmions by the incorporation of magnetic defects into nanomagnets: pinning and scattering traps by magnetic properties engineering
• Engineered magnetization and exchange stiffness in direct-write Co-Fe nanoelements
• Geometrically constrained Skyrmions

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Transformations from stripy states to skyrmion crystals
• Commensuration Effects on Skyrmion Hall Angle and Drag for Manipulation of Skyrmions on Two-Dimensional Periodic Substrates
• Dynamics of asymmetrically deformed skyrmion driven by internal forces and strain force in a flower-shaped magnetic nanostructure
• Ratchet motion of magnetic skyrmions driven by surface acoustic sawtooth waves