Toggle-like current-induced Bloch point dynamics of 3D skyrmion strings in a room temperature nanowire

Birch, M.T.; Cortés-Ortuño, D.; Litzius, K.; Wintz, S.; Schulz, F.; Weigand, M.; Štefančič, A.; Mayoh, D.A.; Balakrishnan, G.; Hatton, P.D.; Schütz, G.

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31335-y

Toggle-like current-induced Bloch point dynamics of 3D skyrmion strings in a room temperature nanowire

Birch, M.T.; Cortés-Ortuño, D.; Litzius, K.; Wintz, S.; Schulz, F.; Weigand, M.; Štefančič, A.; Mayoh, D.A.; Balakrishnan, G.; Hatton, P.D.; Schütz, G.

Authors

M.T. Birch

D. Cortés-Ortuño

K. Litzius

S. Wintz

F. Schulz

M. Weigand

A. Štefančič

D.A. Mayoh

G. Balakrishnan

Professor Peter Hatton p.d.hatton@durham.ac.uk
Professor

G. Schütz

Abstract

Research into practical applications of magnetic skyrmions, nanoscale solitons with interesting topological and transport properties, has traditionally focused on two dimensional (2D) thin-film systems. However, the recent observation of novel three dimensional (3D) skyrmion-like structures, such as hopfions, skyrmion strings (SkS), skyrmion bundles, and skyrmion braids, motivates the investigation of new designs, aiming to exploit the third spatial dimension for more compact and higher performance spintronic devices in 3D or curvilinear geometries. A crucial requirement of such device schemes is the control of the 3D magnetic structures via charge or spin currents, which has yet to be experimentally observed. In this work, we utilise real-space imaging to investigate the dynamics of a 3D SkS within a nanowire of Co8Zn9Mn3 at room temperature. Utilising single current pulses, we demonstrate current-induced nucleation of a single SkS, and a toggle-like positional switching of an individual Bloch point at the end of a SkS. The observations highlight the possibility to locally manipulate 3D topological spin textures, opening up a range of design concepts for future 3D spintronic devices.

Citation

Birch, M., Cortés-Ortuño, D., Litzius, K., Wintz, S., Schulz, F., Weigand, M., …Schütz, G. (2022). Toggle-like current-induced Bloch point dynamics of 3D skyrmion strings in a room temperature nanowire. Nature Communications, 13(1), Article 3630. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31335-y

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jun 15, 2022
Online Publication Date	Jun 24, 2022
Publication Date	2022
Deposit Date	Jul 19, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Jul 19, 2022
Journal	Nature Communications
Publisher	Nature Research
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	13
Issue	1
Article Number	3630
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31335-y

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