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Increased lifetime of metastable skyrmions by controlled doping

Birch, M.T.; Takagi, R.; Seki, S.; Wilson, M.N.; Kagawa, F.; Štefančič, A.; Balakrishnan, G.; Fan, R.; Steadman, P.; Ottley, C.J.; Crisanti, M.; Cubitt, R.; Lancaster, T.; Tokura, Y.; Hatton, P.D.

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Authors

M.T. Birch

R. Takagi

S. Seki

M.N. Wilson

F. Kagawa

A. Štefančič

G. Balakrishnan

R. Fan

P. Steadman

C.J. Ottley

M. Crisanti

R. Cubitt

Y. Tokura

P.D. Hatton



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 crystals of Cu2OSeO3 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 increase in the pinning site density, rather than an alteration to the energy barrier of the decay process. 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.

Citation

Birch, M., Takagi, R., Seki, S., Wilson, M., Kagawa, F., Štefančič, A., …Hatton, P. (2019). Increased lifetime of metastable skyrmions by controlled doping. Physical review B, 100(1), Article 014425. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.100.014425

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Jul 22, 2019
Publication Date Jul 31, 2019
Deposit Date Jul 25, 2019
Publicly Available Date Jul 25, 2019
Journal Physical Review B
Print ISSN 1098-0121
Electronic ISSN 1550-235X
Publisher American Physical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 100
Issue 1
Article Number 014425
DOI https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.100.014425

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Copyright Statement
Reprinted with permission from the American Physical Society: Birch, M. T., Takagi, R., Seki, S., Wilson, M. N., Kagawa, F., Štefančič, A., Balakrishnan, G., Fan, R., Steadman, P., Ottley, C. J., Crisanti, M., Cubitt, R., Lancaster, T., Tokura, Y. & Hatton, P. D. (2019). Increased lifetime of metastable skyrmions by controlled doping. Physical Review B 100(1): 014425 © 2019 by the American Physical Society. Readers may view, browse, and/or download material for temporary copying purposes only, provided these uses are for noncommercial personal purposes. Except as provided by law, this material may not be further reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, adapted, performed, displayed, published, or sold in whole or part, without prior written permission from the American Physical Society.





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