Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected spin textures that exhibit many fascinating features. As compared to the well-studied cryogenic Bloch skyrmions in bulk materials, we focus on the room-temperature N\'eel skyrmions in thin-film systems with an interfacial broken inversion symmetry in this article. Specifically, we show the stabilization, the creation, and the implementation of N\'eel skyrmions that are enabled by the electrical current-induced spin-orbit torques. Towards the nanoscale N\'eel skyrmions, we further discuss the challenges from both material optimization and imaging characterization perspectives.
@article{arxiv.1603.00443,
title = {Mobile N\'eel skyrmions at room temperature: status and future},
author = {Wanjun Jiang and Wei Zhang and Guoqiang Yu and M. Benjamin Jungfleisch and Pramey Upadhyaya and Hamoud Somaily and John E. Pearson and Yaroslav Tserkovnyak and Kang L. Wang and Olle Heinonen and Suzanne G. E. te Velthuis and Axel Hoffmann},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.00443},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
This is an invited paper to be published in the AIP Advances