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Updated: Jul 29, 2025

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Correlation of Interface Interdiffusion and Skyrmionic Phases
Pamela C Carvalho1, Ivan P Miranda2, Jeovani Brandão3
1Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Física, Rua do Matão, 1371, São Paulo 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil.
Abstract:
Magnetic skyrmions are prime candidates for the next generation of spintronic devices. Skyrmions and other topological magnetic structures are known to be stabilized by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) that occurs when the inversion symmetry is broken in thin films. Here, we show by first-principles calculations and atomistic spin dynamics simulations that metastable skyrmionic states can also be found in nominally symmetric multilayered systems. We demonstrate that this is correlated with the large enhancement of the DMI strength due to the presence of local defects. In particular, we find that metastable skyrmions can occur in Pd/Co/Pd multilayers without external magnetic fields and can be stable even near room temperature conditions. Our theoretical findings corroborate with magnetic force microscopy images and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements and highlight the possibility of tuning the intensity of DMI by using interdiffusion at thin film interfaces.
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