Perpendicular Reading of Single Confined Magnetic Skyrmions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel perpendicular reading technique for detecting isolated magnetic skyrmions in thin films, revealing significant conductance anisotropy that could enhance future magnetic storage devices.

Contribution

The study presents an innovative current-perpendicular-to-plane detection method for nanoskyrmions and analyzes their electronic structure and transport properties at the atomic level.

Findings

Over 20% conductance anisotropy in skyrmions

Detection technique applicable to device concepts

Insights into spin-mixing effects on electronic states

Abstract

Thin-film sub-5 nm magnetic skyrmions constitute an ultimate scaling alternative for future digital data storage. Skyrmions are robust non-collinear spin-textures that can be moved and manipulated by small electrical currents. We show here an innovative technique to detect isolated nanoskyrmions with a current-perpendicular-to-plane geometry, which has immediate implications for device concepts. We explore the physics behind such a mechanism by studying the atomistic electronic structure of the magnetic quasiparticles. We investigate how the isolated skyrmion local-density-of-states which tunnels into the vacuum, when compared to the ferromagnetic background, is modified by the site-dependent spin-mixing of electronic states with different relative canting angles. Local transport properties are sensitive to this effect, as we report an atomistic conductance anisotropy of over 20% for magnetic skyrmions in Pd/Fe/Ir(111) thin-films. In single skyrmions, engineering this spin-mixing magnetoresistance possibly could be incorporated in future magnetic storage technologies.