title: Magnetic Skyrmion Formation at Lattice Defects and Grain Boundaries Studied by Quantitative Off-Axis Electron Holography.
abstract: We use in situ Lorentz microscopy and off-axis electron holography to investigate the formation and characteristics of skyrmion lattice defects and their relationship to the underlying crystallographic structure of a B20 FeGe thin film. We obtain experimental measurements of spin configurations at grain boundaries, which reveal inversions of crystallographic and magnetic chirality across adjacent grains, resulting in the formation of interface spin stripes at the grain boundaries. In the absence of material defects, we observe that skyrmions lattices possess dislocations and domain boundaries, in analogy to atomic crystals. Moreover, the distorted skyrmions can flexibly change their size and shape to accommodate local geometry, especially at sites of dislocations in the skyrmion lattice. Our findings provide a detailed understanding of the elasticity of topologically protected skyrmions and their correlation with underlying material defects.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics and Center for Nanointegration (CENIDE), University of Duisburg-Essen , 47057 Duisburg, Germany.|Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich , 52425 Jülich, Germany.|Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 100190 Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zi-An
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6338-8933
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich , 52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Fengshan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich , 52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Amir Hossein
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1551-885X
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Tavabi
authors.affiliation: Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich , 52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Caron
authors.affiliation: High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 230031 Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Chiming
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 230031 Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Haifeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich , 52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: András
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kovács
authors.affiliation: High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 230031 Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Mingliang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics and Center for Nanointegration (CENIDE), University of Duisburg-Essen , 47057 Duisburg, Germany.|Center for Functionalized Magnetic Materials (FunMagMa), Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University , Kaliningrad, Russian Federation.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Farle
authors.affiliation: Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons and Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich , 52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Rafal E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Dunin-Borkowski
keywords: FeGe helimagnet; Lorentz microscopy; Magnetic skyrmion; magnetic defects; off-axis electron holography