Tuning the size of skyrmion by strain at the Co/Pt3 interfaces

Lingzi Jiang; Can Huang; Yan Zhu; Yanfei Pan; Jiyu Fan; Kaicheng Zhang; Chunlan Ma; Daning Shi; Hongbin Zhang

iScience (Apr 2022)

Tuning the size of skyrmion by strain at the Co/Pt3 interfaces

Lingzi Jiang,
Can Huang,
Yan Zhu,
Yanfei Pan,
Jiyu Fan,
Kaicheng Zhang,
Chunlan Ma,
Daning Shi,
Hongbin Zhang

Affiliations

Lingzi Jiang: Department of Physics, College of Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210006, China; MIIT Key Laboratory of Aerospace Information Materials and Physics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China
Can Huang: Department of Physics, College of Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210006, China; MIIT Key Laboratory of Aerospace Information Materials and Physics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China
Yan Zhu: Department of Physics, College of Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210006, China; MIIT Key Laboratory of Aerospace Information Materials and Physics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China; Corresponding author
Yanfei Pan: Department of Physics, College of Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210006, China; MIIT Key Laboratory of Aerospace Information Materials and Physics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China
Jiyu Fan: Department of Physics, College of Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210006, China; MIIT Key Laboratory of Aerospace Information Materials and Physics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China
Kaicheng Zhang: College of Mathematics and Physics, Bohai University, Jinzhou 121013, China
Chunlan Ma: Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Heat Fluid Flow Technology and Energy Application, School of Physical Science and Technology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215009, China; Corresponding author
Daning Shi: Department of Physics, College of Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210006, China; MIIT Key Laboratory of Aerospace Information Materials and Physics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China
Hongbin Zhang: Institute of Materials Science, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt 64287, Germany; Corresponding author

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 25, no. 4
p. 104039

Abstract

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Summary: Based on density functional theory calculations, we elucidated the tunability of the atomic structures and magnetic interactions of Co/Pt3 interface (one layer of hcp(0001) Co and three layers of fcc(111) Pt) and thus the skyrmion sizes using strain. The dispersion relations of the spin spiral in the opposite directions, E(q) and E(-q), were evaluated based on generalized Bloch equations. Effective exchange coupling (EC) and Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction (DMI) parameters between different neighbors Ji and di at different lattice constants were derived by fitting the resulting spin spiral dispersion E(q) to EC model with DMI and E(q)-E(-q) formula, respectively. We observed an increase in DMI and a significant decrease in EC with an increase in strain. Hence, the size of Néel-type skyrmions determined by the ratio of EC/DMI can be controlled by applying strain, leading to an effective approach to tailor the formation of skyrmion lattices by inducing slight structural modifications on the magnetic thin films.

Published in iScience

ISSN: 2589-0042 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Science
Website: http://www.cell.com/iscience/home

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