Inducing a Tunable Skyrmion-Antiskyrmion System through Ion Beam Modification of FeGe Films

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Main Authors: Venuti, M. B., Zhang, Xiyue S., Lang, Eric J, Addamane, Sadhvikas J., Paik, Hanjong, Allen, Portia, Sharma, Peter, Muller, David, Hattar, Khalid, Lu, Tzu-Ming, Eley, Serena
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Venuti, M. B.
Zhang, Xiyue S.
Lang, Eric J
Addamane, Sadhvikas J.
Paik, Hanjong
Allen, Portia
Sharma, Peter
Muller, David
Hattar, Khalid
Lu, Tzu-Ming
Eley, Serena
author_facet Venuti, M. B.
Zhang, Xiyue S.
Lang, Eric J
Addamane, Sadhvikas J.
Paik, Hanjong
Allen, Portia
Sharma, Peter
Muller, David
Hattar, Khalid
Lu, Tzu-Ming
Eley, Serena
contents Skyrmions and antiskyrmions are nanoscale swirling textures of magnetic moments formed by chiral interactions between atomic spins in magnetic non-centrosymmetric materials and multilayer films with broken inversion symmetry. These quasiparticles are of interest for use as information carriers in next-generation, low-energy spintronic applications. To develop skyrmion-based memory and logic, we must understand skyrmion-defect interactions with two main goals -- determining how skyrmions navigate intrinsic material defects and determining how to engineer disorder for optimal device operation. Here, we introduce a tunable means of creating a skyrmion-antiskyrmion system by engineering the disorder landscape in FeGe using ion irradiation. Specifically, we irradiate epitaxial B20-phase FeGe films with 2.8 MeV Au$^{4+}$ ions at varying fluences, inducing amorphous regions within the crystalline matrix. Using low-temperature electrical transport and magnetization measurements, we observe a strong topological Hall effect with a double-peak feature that serves as a signature of skyrmions and antiskyrmions. These results are a step towards the development of information storage devices that use skyrmions and anitskyrmions as storage bits and our system may serve as a testbed for theoretically predicted phenomena in skyrmion-antiskyrmion crystals.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_13130
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Inducing a Tunable Skyrmion-Antiskyrmion System through Ion Beam Modification of FeGe Films
Venuti, M. B.
Zhang, Xiyue S.
Lang, Eric J
Addamane, Sadhvikas J.
Paik, Hanjong
Allen, Portia
Sharma, Peter
Muller, David
Hattar, Khalid
Lu, Tzu-Ming
Eley, Serena
Materials Science
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Skyrmions and antiskyrmions are nanoscale swirling textures of magnetic moments formed by chiral interactions between atomic spins in magnetic non-centrosymmetric materials and multilayer films with broken inversion symmetry. These quasiparticles are of interest for use as information carriers in next-generation, low-energy spintronic applications. To develop skyrmion-based memory and logic, we must understand skyrmion-defect interactions with two main goals -- determining how skyrmions navigate intrinsic material defects and determining how to engineer disorder for optimal device operation. Here, we introduce a tunable means of creating a skyrmion-antiskyrmion system by engineering the disorder landscape in FeGe using ion irradiation. Specifically, we irradiate epitaxial B20-phase FeGe films with 2.8 MeV Au$^{4+}$ ions at varying fluences, inducing amorphous regions within the crystalline matrix. Using low-temperature electrical transport and magnetization measurements, we observe a strong topological Hall effect with a double-peak feature that serves as a signature of skyrmions and antiskyrmions. These results are a step towards the development of information storage devices that use skyrmions and anitskyrmions as storage bits and our system may serve as a testbed for theoretically predicted phenomena in skyrmion-antiskyrmion crystals.
title Inducing a Tunable Skyrmion-Antiskyrmion System through Ion Beam Modification of FeGe Films
topic Materials Science
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Strongly Correlated Electrons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.13130