Tunable room-temperature magnetic skyrmions in Ir/Fe/Co/Pt multilayers

Area of Science:

• Condensed Matter Physics
• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Magnetic skyrmions are nanoscale topological spin structures with potential for information storage.
• Recent advances include sub-100-nm room-temperature (RT) skyrmions in multilayer films.
• Modulating skyrmion properties is crucial for device applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a tunable RT skyrmion platform.
• To investigate skyrmion properties in Ir/Fe/Co/Pt multilayer stacks.
• To establish a basis for functional sub-50-nm RT skyrmion devices.

Main Methods:

• X-ray microscopy
• Magnetic force microscopy
• Hall transport measurements

Main Results:

• Tunable RT skyrmion platform based on Ir/Fe/Co/Pt multilayers.
• Tuning ferromagnetic layer composition altered magnetic interactions and thermodynamic stability by an order of magnitude.
• Skyrmion size and density were tuned by factors of two and ten, respectively.
• Observed smooth crossover between isolated and lattice skyrmion configurations.

Conclusions:

• Established a tunable platform for investigating functional sub-50-nm RT skyrmions.
• Demonstrated control over skyrmion properties through material composition.
• This work advances the development of skyrmion-based memory devices.