Stabilization and application of asymmetric N\'eel skyrmions in hybrid nanostructures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how hybrid nanostructures with asymmetric Ne9el skyrmions can enhance stability, induce mutual coupling, and enable skyrmion transport, advancing potential applications in spintronics and magnonics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid nanostructure platform where skyrmion stability and control are improved through mutual coupling with ferromagnetic stripes, including a proof-of-concept for skyrmion transport.

Findings

Skyrmions induce an imprint on the stripe, affecting their size and stability.

Hybrid structures increase skyrmion stability range and enable bi-stability.

Proof-of-concept for skyrmion transport along a racetrack.

Abstract

Increasing amounts of information force the continuous improvement of information storage and processing technologies, further device miniaturization, and their efficiency increase. Magnetic skyrmions, topological quasiparticles, and the smallest stable magnetic textures possess intriguing properties and potential for data storage applications. Hybrid nanostructures with elements of different magnetization orientations can offer additional advantages for developing skyrmion-based spintronic and magnonic devices. We show that an N\'eel-type skyrmion confined within a nanodot placed on top of a ferromagnetic stripe produces a unique and compelling platform for exploring mutual coupling between magnetization textures. The skyrmion induces an imprint upon the stripe, which, in turn, asymmetrically squeezes the skyrmion in the dot, increasing their size and the range of skyrmion stability for small values of DMI, as well as introducing skyrmion bi-stability. At the end, we present a proof-of-concept technique for unconstrained transport of a skyrmion along a racetrack based on proposed hybrid systems. Our results demonstrate a hybrid structure that is promising for applications in magnonics and spintronics.