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Ferroelectrically tunable magnetic skyrmions in ultrathin oxide heterostructures

Nature Materials volume 17, pages 1087–1094 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected whirling spin texture. Their nanoscale dimensions, topologically protected stability and solitonic nature, together are promising for future spintronics applications. To translate these compelling features into practical spintronic devices, a key challenge lies in achieving effective control of skyrmion properties, such as size, density and thermodynamic stability. Here, we report the discovery of ferroelectrically tunable skyrmions in ultrathin BaTiO3/SrRuO3 bilayer heterostructures. The ferroelectric proximity effect at the BaTiO3/SrRuO3 heterointerface triggers a sizeable Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction, thus stabilizing robust skyrmions with diameters less than a hundred nanometres. Moreover, by manipulating the ferroelectric polarization of the BaTiO3 layer, we achieve local, switchable and nonvolatile control of both skyrmion density and thermodynamic stability. This ferroelectrically tunable skyrmion system can simultaneously enhance the integratability and addressability of skyrmion-based functional devices.

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Fig. 1: Ferroelectric proximity effect and the DMI at the BTO/SRO interface.
Fig. 2: Topological Hall effects of BTO/SRO/SrTiO3(001) heterostructures.
Fig. 3: Magnetic force microscopy of magnetic skyrmions in the B20S5 sample.
Fig. 4: FE control of skyrmion properties.
Fig. 5: Scanning transmission electron microscopy results near the BTO/SRO interface.

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Data availability

All relevant data that support the plots within this paper are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Q.L., W.M. and Q.F. were supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (grants no. 2017YFA0402903 and no. 2016YFA0401003) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51627901). J.H.H. was supported by Samsung Science and Technology Foundation under Project Number SSTF-BA1701-07. STEM and PPMS measurements were supported by the National Center for Inter-University Research Facilities (NCIRF) at Seoul National University in Korea. All the authors want to acknowledge major support from the Research Center Program of IBS (Institute for Basic Science) in Korea (IBS-R009-D1). We also acknowledge invaluable suggestions and support from S.Y. Park, S.M. Yang, S. H. Chang, C. Kim, J.-G. Park, B.J. Yang, T.H. Kim, W. Wu and Y. Wang.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Qiyuan Feng, Yoonkoo Kim, Rokyeon Kim and Ki Hoon Lee.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Correlated Electron Systems, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Lingfei Wang, Rokyeon Kim, Ki Hoon Lee, Yeong Jae Shin, Haibiao Zhou, Wei Peng, Daesu Lee & Tae Won Noh

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Lingfei Wang, Rokyeon Kim, Ki Hoon Lee, Yeong Jae Shin, Haibiao Zhou, Wei Peng, Daesu Lee & Tae Won Noh

  3. Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics at Extreme Conditions, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui, China

    Qiyuan Feng, Haibiao Zhou, Wenjie Meng & Qingyou Lu

  4. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China

    Qiyuan Feng & Qingyou Lu

  5. Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Yoonkoo Kim & Miyoung Kim

  6. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Shawn D. Pollard & Hyunsoo Yang

  7. Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Jung Hoon Han

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Contributions

L.W. and T.W.N. conceived the idea and designed the experiments. R.K. performed the first-principles DFT calculations. L.W. and Y.J.S. grew the samples, fabricated the Hall bar devices and performed the PFM measurements. Y.K. and M.Y.K. performed the STEM measurements. Q.F., H.Z., W.M. and Q.L. performed the MFM measurements. S.D.P., K.H.L. and H.Y. performed the numerical simulations on skyrmion stability. L.W. and T.W.N. analysed the results and wrote the manuscript. All authors participated in the discussions during manuscript preparation.

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Correspondence to Lingfei Wang, Qingyou Lu or Tae Won Noh.

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Supplementary Sections 1–10, Supplementary Figures 1–26, Supplementary Notes 1–2, Supplementary References 1–29

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Wang, L., Feng, Q., Kim, Y. et al. Ferroelectrically tunable magnetic skyrmions in ultrathin oxide heterostructures. Nature Mater 17, 1087–1094 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0204-4

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