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Experimental observation of current-driven antiskyrmion sliding in stripe domains

Nature Materials (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions are promising as next-generation information units. Their antiparticle—the antiskyrmion—has also been discovered in chiral magnets. Here we experimentally demonstrate antiskyrmion sliding in response to a pulsed electric current at room temperature without the requirement of an external magnetic field. This is realized by embedding antiskyrmions in helical stripe domains, which naturally provide one-dimensional straight tracks along which antiskyrmion sliding can be easily launched with low current density and without transverse deflection from the antiskyrmion Hall effect. The higher mobility of the antiskyrmions in the background of helical stripes in contrast to the typical ferromagnetic state is a result of intrinsic material parameters and elastic energy of the stripe domain, thereby smearing out the random pinning potential, as supported by micromagnetic simulations. The demonstration and comprehensive understanding of antiskyrmion movement along naturally straight tracks offers a new perspective for (anti)skyrmion application in spintronics.

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Fig. 1: Realization of room-temperature antiskyrmions with different magnetization states and their straight current-driven behaviour along the naturally helical stripes at zero field in a Mn1.4PtSn chiral magnet.
Fig. 2: Room-temperature antiskyrmion sliding along the straight stripe domain at a current density of je = 4.3 × 109 A m−2 but with two opposite directions at zero field.
Fig. 3: Collective sliding of antiskyrmion and antiskyrmion dimer (Q = 2) along a straight stripe in Mn1.4PtSn thin plate at zero field and room temperature.
Fig. 4: Current-driven behaviour of room-temperature meron pair along a helical stripe at zero field in Mn1.4PtSn chiral magnet.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available within the Article and its Supplementary Information. Any other relevant data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Z. Zhong for helpful discussion. This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. XDB33030100 to Y.Z.), the Science Centre of the National Science Foundation of China (grant no. 52088101 to Y.Z. and B.S.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 52271195 to Y.Z., 52130103 to Y.Z. and S.W., 51925605 to J.S. and 52225106 to C.S.) and the CAS Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research (no. YSBR-084 to Y.Z.). The work at Los Alamos National Lab was carried out under the auspices of the US Department of Energy (DOE) NNSA under contract no. 89233218CNA000001 to S.-Z.L. through the LDRD Program, and was performed, in part, at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of the Science User Facility, operated for the US DOE Office of Science, under user proposal nos. 2018BU0010 and 2018BU0083 to S.-Z.L.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Zhidong He, Zhuolin Li, Zhan Wang, Tongyun Zhao, Jianwang Cai, Ying Zhang & Baogen Shen

  2. School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Zhidong He, Zhuolin Li, Tongyun Zhao, Jianwang Cai, Ying Zhang & Baogen Shen

  3. State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics and Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Zhaohui Chen

  4. Department of Energy and Power Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China

    Jun Shen

  5. Anhui Key Laboratory of Magnetic Functional Materials and Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei, China

    Shouguo Wang

  6. Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Cheng Song

  7. Theoretical Division and Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA

    Shi-Zeng Lin

  8. Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, China

    Ying Zhang

  9. Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, China

    Baogen Shen

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Contributions

Y.Z. and B.S. supervised the project. Z.H., Z.C. and Z.W. synthesized the Mn1.4PtSn bulk crystals. Z.H. and Y.Z. performed the L-TEM observation. Z.H., Z.L. and S.-Z.L. performed the micromagnetic simulation. Z.H., S.-Z.L., J.C. and Y.Z. analysed the experimental data and plotted the figures. Z.H., S.-Z.L. and Y.Z. wrote the manuscript after discussing the data with J.S., S.W., C.S., T.Z., J.C. and B.S.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Shi-Zeng Lin or Ying Zhang.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes I–III and Figs. 1–14.

Supplementary Video 1

Antiskyrmion sliding along the straight stripe domain at a current density of je = 4.3 × 109 A m–2 at zero field and room temperature.

Supplementary Video 2

Direction reversal of antiskyrmion movement when the pulse current (je = 4.3 × 109 A m–2) is reversed to the opposite direction.

Supplementary Video 3

Current-driven behaviour of a meron pair along a helical stripe at a current density of je = 6.8 × 109 A m–2 at zero field and room temperature.

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He, Z., Li, Z., Chen, Z. et al. Experimental observation of current-driven antiskyrmion sliding in stripe domains. Nat. Mater. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01870-8

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