Abstract
Magnetic skyrmion tubes and bobbers are two types of different nanoscale spin configurations that can coexist in nanostructures of chiral magnets. They are then proposed to be utilized as binary bits to build racetrack memory devices. The ability to manipulate the two magnetic objects controllably by current in nanostructures is the prerequisite to realize the device. Here, we demonstrate by numerical simulations that a magnetic bobber and a skyrmion tube can be transformed to each other using spin-polarized current in nanostripes with stepped shape. We also show such stepped nanostructures can be readily applied as the write head for the skyrmion-bobber-based racetrack memory.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
S. S. P. Parkin, M. Hayashi, and L. Thomas, Science 320, 190 (2008).
S. Parkin, and S. H. Yang, Nat. Nanotech. 10, 195 (2015).
S. Zhang, and Z. Li, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 127204 (2004), arXiv: condmat/0407174.
D. Chiba, G. Yamada, T. Koyama, K. Ueda, H. Tanigawa, S. Fukami, T. Suzuki, N. Ohshima, N. Ishiwata, Y. Nakatani, and T. Ono, Appl. Phys. Express 3, 073004 (2010).
K. S. Ryu, L. Thomas, S. H. Yang, and S. Parkin, Nat. Nanotech. 8, 527 (2013).
Y. Zhou, Natl. Sci. Rev. 6, 210 (2019).
J. Tang, L. Kong, W. Wang, H. Du, and M. Tian, Chin. Phys. B 28, 087503 (2019).
S. Wang, J. Tang, W. Wang, L. Kong, M. Tian, and H. Du, J. Low Temp. Phys. 197, 321 (2019).
S. Muhlbauer, B. Binz, F. Jonietz, C. Pfleiderer, A. Rosch, A. Neubauer, R. Georgii, and P. Boni, Science 323, 915 (2009), arXiv: 0902.1968.
S. L. Zhang, A. Bauer, D. M. Burn, P. Milde, E. Neuber, L. M. Eng, H. Berger, C. Pfleiderer, G. van der Laan, and T. Hesjedal, Nano Lett. 16, 3285 (2016), arXiv: 1606.01187.
Y. J. Zhang, Q. Zheng, X. R. Zhu, Z. Yuan, and K. Xia, Sci. China-Phys. Mech. Astron. 63, 277531 (2020).
F. Jonietz, S. Muhlbauer, C. Pfleiderer, A. Neubauer, W. Munzer, A. Bauer, T. Adams, R. Georgii, P. Boni, R. A. Duine, K. Everschor, M. Garst, and A. Rosch, Science 330, 1648 (2010), arXiv: 1012.3496.
X. Z. Yu, N. Kanazawa, W. Z. Zhang, T. Nagai, T. Hara, K. Kimoto, Y. Matsui, Y. Onose, and Y. Tokura, Nat. Commun. 3, 988 (2012).
J. Sampaio, V. Cros, S. Rohart, A. Thiaville, and A. Fert, Nat. Nanotech. 8, 839 (2013).
A. Fert, V. Cros, and J. Sampaio, Nat. Nanotech. 8, 152 (2013).
H. Du, X. Zhao, F. N. Rybakov, A. B. Borisov, S. Wang, J. Tang, C. Jin, C. Wang, W. Wei, N. S. Kiselev, Y. Zhang, R. Che, S. Blügel, and M. Tian, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 197203 (2018).
X. Zhao, C. Jin, C. Wang, H. Du, J. Zang, M. Tian, R. Che, and Y. Zhang, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 113, 4918 (2016).
F. N. Rybakov, A. B. Borisov, S. Blügel, and N. S. Kiselev, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 117201 (2015), arXiv: 1508.04786.
F. N. Rybakov, A. B. Borisov, S. Blügel, and N. S. Kiselev, New J. Phys. 18, 045002 (2016), arXiv: 1601.05752.
F. Zheng, F. N. Rybakov, A. B. Borisov, D. Song, S. Wang, Z. A. Li, H. Du, N. S. Kiselev, J. Caron, A. Kovács, M. Tian, Y. Zhang, S. Blügel, and R. E. Dunin-Borkowski, Nat. Nanotech. 13, 451 (2018).
A. Vansteenkiste, J. Leliaert, M. Dvornik, M. Helsen, F. Garcia-Sanchez, and B. Van Waeyenberge, AIP Adv. 4, 107133 (2014), arXiv: 1406.7635.
F. Kagawa, H. Oike, W. Koshibae, A. Kikkawa, Y. Okamura, Y. Taguchi, N. Nagaosa, and Y. Tokura, Nat. Commun. 8, 1332 (2017), arXiv: 1711.03286.
W. F. Jr. Brown, J. Appl. Phys. 34, 1319 (1963).
W. Jiang, P. Upadhyaya, W. Zhang, G. Yu, M. B. Jungfleisch, F. Y. Fradin, J. E. Pearson, Y. Tserkovnyak, K. L. Wang, O. Heinonen, S. G. E. te Velthuis, and A. Hoffmann, Science 349, 283 (2015).
S. Sugimoto, W. Koshibae, S. Kasai, N. Ogawa, Y. Takahashi, N. Nagaosa, and Y. Tokura, Sci. Rep. 10, 1009 (2020).
L. Peng, Y. Zhang, M. He, B. Ding, W. Wang, H. Tian, J. Li, S. Wang, J. Cai, G. Wu, J. P. Liu, M. J. Kramer, and B. Shen, npj Quant. Mater. 2, 30 (2017).
P. F. Bessarab, V. M. Uzdin, and H. Jónsson, Comput. Phys. Commun. 196, 335 (2015), arXiv: 1502.05065.
Y. Tokunaga, X. Z. Yu, J. S. White, H. M. Rønnow, D. Morikawa, Y. Taguchi, and Y. Tokura, Nat. Commun. 6, 7638 (2015), arXiv: 1503.05651.
M. Redies, F. R. Lux, J. P. Hanke, P. M. Buhl, G. P. Müller, N. S. Kiselev, S. Blügel, and Y. Mokrousov, Phys. Rev. B 99, 140407 (2019), arXiv: 1811.01584.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11804343, and 11974021), the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KJZD-SW-M01). We acknowledge N. S. Kiselev for helpful discussions.
Supporting Information
The supporting information is available online at phys.scichina.com and http://link.springer.com/journal/11433. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhu, J., Wu, Y., Hu, Q. et al. Current-driven transformations of a skyrmion tube and a bobber in stepped nanostructures of chiral magnets. Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 64, 227511 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-020-1619-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-020-1619-8