Three-dimensional skyrmionic cocoons in magnetic multilayers

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery and characterization of a new 3D magnetic topological texture called skyrmionic cocoon in multilayer films, demonstrating their coexistence with skyrmion tubes and potential for electrical detection.

Contribution

It introduces the novel skyrmionic cocoon texture, explores its properties through simulations and experiments, and demonstrates its stabilization and electrical detection in multilayer systems.

Findings

Skyrmionic cocoons coexist with skyrmion tubes in multilayers.

Magnetic properties vary with layer position to stabilize textures.

Magneto-resistive measurements confirm electrical detectability.

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) topological spin textures emerge as promising quasi-particles for encoding information in future spintronic devices. The third dimension provides more malleability regarding their magnetic properties as well as more flexibility for potential applications. However, the stabilization and characterization of such quasi-particles in easily implementable systems remain a work in progress. Here we observe a new type of 3D magnetic textures that we called skyrmionic cocoons that sits in the interior of magnetic thin films multilayers and possesses a characteristic ellipsoidal shape. Interestingly, these cocoons can coexist with more standard `tubular' skyrmions going through all the multilayer as evidenced by the existence of two very different contrasts in the MFM images recorded at room temperature. The presence of these novel skyrmionic textures as well as the understanding of their layer resolved chiral and topological properties have been investigated by micromagnetic simulations. In order to experimentally stabilize the combination of 3D skyrmion tubes and cocoons, we have elaborated metallic multilayers in which the magnetic properties, notably the anisotropy, of the magnetic films in the stacks is varied depending on their vertical position. Finally, in complement to the magnetic imaging, we also measure the magneto-resistive response of the multilayers as a function of the magnetic field, and succeed to fit its evolution using the 3D micromagnetic simulations as inputs for the magnetic configuration. The excellent agreement that is reached brings additional evidence of the presence of skyrmionic cocoons that hence can be electrically detected.