Phenomenology of current-induced skyrmion motion in antiferromagnets

Abstract

We study current-driven skyrmion motion in uniaxial thin film antiferromagnets in the presence of the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interactions and in an external magnetic field. We phenomenologically include relaxation and current-induced torques due to both spin–orbit coupling and spatially inhomogeneous magnetic textures in the equation for the Néel vector of the antiferromagnet. Using the collective coordinate approach we apply the theory to a two-dimensional antiferromagnetic skyrmion and estimate the skyrmion velocity under an applied DC electric current.

Keywords

• antiferromagnetic skyrmions
• phenomenology
• spin–orbit torques
• electric currents
• magnetization dynamics
• Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interactions