Abstract
We report the direct measurement of the topological skyrmion energy barrier through a hysteresis of the skyrmion lattice in the chiral magnet MnSi. Measurements were made using small-angle neutron scattering with a custom-built resistive coil to allow for high-precision minor hysteresis loops. The experimental data were analyzed using an adapted Preisach model to quantify the energy barrier for skyrmion formation and corroborated by the minimum-energy path analysis based on atomistic spin simulations. We reveal that the skyrmion lattice in MnSi forms from the conical phase progressively in small domains, each of which consisting of hundreds of skyrmions, and with an activation barrier of several eV.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 104416 |
| Journal | Physical Review B |
| Volume | 102 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2020 |
Funding
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Award No. DE-SC0005051 (A.W.D.L., G.L., M.R.E.), the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) (R.M.M., M.V.M.), and Brazilian Agencies FACEPE, CAPES and CNPq (R.M.M.). M.J. was supported by the LANL Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program via the Directed Research (DR) project “A New Approach to Mesoscale Functionality: Emergent Tunable Superlattices (20150082DR).” E.D.B. was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Science and Engineering, under project “Quantum Fluctuations in Narrow-Band Systems.” A portion of this research used resources at the High Flux Isotope Reactor, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Part of this work is based on experiments performed at the Swiss spallation neutron source SINQ, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland. We acknowledge useful conversations with E. Louden, D. Green, and A. Francisco in preparation for these experiments, as well as the assistance of K. Avers, G. Taufer, M. Harrington, M. Bartkowiak, and C. Baldwin in completing them. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Award No. DE-SC0005051 (A.W.D.L., G.L., M.R.E.), the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) (R.M.M., M.V.M.), and Brazilian Agencies FACEPE, CAPES and CNPq (R.M.M.). M.J. was supported by the LANL Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program via the Directed Research (DR) project ?A New Approach to Mesoscale Functionality: Emergent Tunable Superlattices (20150082DR).? E.D.B. was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Science and Engineering, under project ?Quantum Fluctuations in Narrow-Band Systems.? A portion of this research used resources at the High Flux Isotope Reactor, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Part of this work is based on experiments performed at the Swiss spallation neutron source SINQ, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland. We acknowledge useful conversations with E. Louden, D. Green, and A. Francisco in preparation for these experiments, as well as the assistance of K. Avers, G. Taufer, M. Harrington, M. Bartkowiak, and C. Baldwin in completing them.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| DOE Office of Science | |
| Division of Materials Science and Engineering | |
| FWO-Vlaanderen | |
| LANL Directed Research and Development | |
| Office of Basic Energy Sciences | |
| Research Foundation - Flanders | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Basic Energy Sciences | DE-SC0005051 |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| Laboratory Directed Research and Development | 20150082DR |
| Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering | |
| Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior | |
| Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico |