Stability of (Active) Bilayer Skyrmions in Synthetic Antiferromagnets

TL;DR

This study investigates the stability mechanisms of bilayer synthetic antiferromagnetic skyrmions using atomistic simulations, revealing how DMI, anisotropy, and interlayer coupling influence their collapse pathways and stability regimes.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of collapse pathways and identifies parameters that enhance the stability of SAF skyrmions, offering strategies for optimizing skyrmion-based devices.

Findings

Pair destruction occurs via decoupling or sequential collapse.

Interlayer coupling affects homochiral and heterochiral skyrmion stability differently.

Reducing anisotropy stabilizes heterochiral SAF skyrmions.

Abstract

Synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) skyrmions are nanoscale composite textures that exhibit high-speed, Hall-free current-driven motion and recently demonstrated self-propulsion. These remarkable properties rely on the stability of the SAF skyrmion's topological bound state, whose underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, using an atomistic spin model, we analyze the collapse pathways of bilayer SAF skyrmions in homochiral systems, where both ferromagnetic layers share the same Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) vectors, and in heterochiral systems, where the DMI vectors have opposite directions. We find that pair destruction occurs either by decoupling or by sequential collapse into the homogeneous antiferromagnetic state, so the activation energy is set by the smaller of these two barriers. By examining how these barriers vary with DMI strength, anisotropy, magnetic field, and interlayer exchange, we identify regimes of enhanced stability. In particular, increasing interlayer coupling strengthens homochiral skyrmions but weakens heterochiral ones, while reducing the anisotropy constant effectively stabilizes heterochiral SAF skyrmions. These results outline viable strategies to optimize SAF heterostructures for enhanced skyrmion stability in racetrack devices and emerging active skyrmionic systems.