New Journal of Physics (Jan 2018)

Dynamics of distorted skyrmions in strained chiral magnets

  • J Chen,
  • J J Liang,
  • J H Yu,
  • M H Qin,
  • Z Fan,
  • M Zeng,
  • X B Lu,
  • X S Gao,
  • S Dong,
  • J-M Liu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aacd46
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 6
p. 063050

Abstract

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In this work, we study the microscopic dynamics of distorted skyrmions in strained chiral magnets (Shibatak et al 2015 Nat. Nanotechnol. 10 589) under gradient magnetic field and electric current by Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert simulations of the anisotropic spin model. It is observed that the dynamical responses are also anisotropic, and the velocity of the distorted skyrmion is periodically dependent on the directions of the external stimuli. Furthermore, in addition to the uniform motion, our work also demonstrates an anti-phase harmonic vibration of the two skyrmions in nanostripes, and the frequencies can be effectively modulated by the anisotropic Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction. The simulated results are well explained by Thiele’s theory, which may provide useful information in understanding the dynamics of the distorted skyrmions.

Keywords