Tailoring Magnetic Skyrmions by Geometric Confinement of Magnetic Structures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates theoretically that magnetic skyrmions can be stabilized and their size controlled through geometric confinement and spatial modulation of magnetic anisotropy in thin films, independent of DMI or dipolar interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to stabilize and tailor skyrmions using anisotropy modulation, expanding control over skyrmion properties beyond traditional mechanisms.

Findings

Skyrmions can be stabilized by anisotropy modulation in centrosymmetric ferromagnets.

Skyrmion size is governed by the ratio of exchange length to anisotropy modulation period.

The approach offers a new pathway for skyrmion control in spintronic devices.

Abstract

Nanoscale magnetic skyrmions have interesting static and transport properties that make them candidates for future spintronic devices. Control and manipulation of the size and behavior of skyrmions is thus of crucial importance. Using a Ginzburg-Landau approach, we show theoretically that skyrmions and skyrmion lattices can be stabilized by a spatial modulation of the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in a thin film of centro-symmetric ferromagnet. Remarkably, the skyrmion size is determined by the ratio of the exchange length and the period of the spatial modulation of the anisotropy, at variance with conventional skyrmions stabilized by dipolar and Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya interactions (DMIs).