Multidomain Skyrmion Lattice State in Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to create and manipulate multidomain skyrmion states near the surface of Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$ using soft resonant elastic x-ray scattering, enabling potential spintronics applications.

Contribution

It introduces a controlled technique to generate and manipulate multidomain skyrmion lattices on the surface of Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$ with depth-sensitive imaging.

Findings

Multidomain skyrmion states can be created near the surface.

Magnetic field direction influences skyrmion domain structure.

Technique allows local manipulation of skyrmions.

Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions in chiral magnets are nanoscale, topologically-protected magnetization swirls that are promising candidates for spintronics memory carriers. Therefore, observing and manipulating the skyrmion state on the surface level of the materials are of great importance for future applications. Here, we report a controlled way of creating a multidomain skyrmion state near the surface of a Cu$_{2}$OSeO$_{3}$ single crystal, observed by soft resonant elastic x-ray scattering. This technique is an ideal tool to probe the magnetic order at the $L_{3}$ edge of $3d$ metal compounds giving a depth sensitivity of ${\sim}50$ nm. The single-domain sixfold-symmetric skyrmion lattice can be broken up into domains overcoming the propagation directions imposed by the cubic anisotropy by applying the magnetic field in directions deviating from the major cubic axes. Our findings open the door to a new way to manipulate and engineer the skyrmion state locally on the surface, or on the level of individual skyrmions, which will enable applications in the future.