title: Edge-mediated skyrmion chain and its collective dynamics in a confined geometry.
abstract: The emergence of a topologically nontrivial vortex-like magnetic structure, the magnetic skyrmion, has launched new concepts for memory devices. Extensive studies have theoretically demonstrated the ability to encode information bits by using a chain of skyrmions in one-dimensional nanostripes. Here, we report experimental observation of the skyrmion chain in FeGe nanostripes by using high-resolution Lorentz transmission electron microscopy. Under an applied magnetic field, we observe that the helical ground states with distorted edge spins evolve into individual skyrmions, which assemble in the form of a chain at low field and move collectively into the interior of the nanostripes at elevated fields. Such a skyrmion chain survives even when the width of the nanostripe is much larger than the size of single skyrmion. This discovery demonstrates a way of skyrmion formation through the edge effect, and might, in the long term, shed light on potential applications.
authors.affiliation: High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Hefei 230031, China.
authors.forename: Haifeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Department of Materials Science, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China.
authors.forename: Renchao
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Che
authors.affiliation: Computational Physics and computational Mechanics, Institute of Fluid Physics, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, China.
authors.forename: Lingyao
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Department of Materials Science, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China.
authors.forename: Xuebing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Hefei 230031, China.
authors.forename: Chiming
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Department of Materials Science, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Hefei 230031, China.
authors.forename: Jiyong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Hefei 230031, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ning
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Ningbo Institute of Material Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China.
authors.forename: Runwei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Extreme Conditions Physics, Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Changqing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Hefei 230031, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.|Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Science at Microscale, Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230022, China.
authors.forename: Xianhui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Materials Science Program, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824, USA.
authors.forename: Jiadong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zang
authors.affiliation: High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Hefei 230031, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Yuheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Hefei 230031, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Mingliang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tian