Creation of a chiral bobber lattice in helimagnet-multilayer heterostructures

Journal article

A chiral bobber is a localized three-dimensional magnetization configuration, terminated by a singularity. Chiral bobbers coexist with magnetic skyrmions in chiral magnets, lending themselves to new types of skyrmion-complementary bits of information. However, the on-demand creation of bobbers, as well as their direct observation remained elusive. Here, we introduce a new mechanism for creating a stable chiral bobber lattice state via the proximity of two skyrmion species with comparable size. This effect is experimentally demonstrated in a Cu2OSeO3/[Ta/CoFeB/MgO]4 heterostructure in which an exotic bobber lattice state emerges in the phase diagram of Cu2OSeO3. To unambiguously reveal the existence of the chiral bobber lattice state, we have developed a novel characterization technique, magnetic truncation rod analysis, which is based on resonant elastic x-ray scattering.

Authors: Ran, K; Liu, Y; Guang, Y; Burn, DM; van der Laan, G

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Volume: 126
• Issue: 1
• Article number: 017204
• Publication date: 2021-01-08
• Acceptance date: 2020-11-20
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.017204
• EISSN: 1079-7114
• ISSN: 0031-9007
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR