title: Current-Induced Nucleation and Annihilation of Magnetic Skyrmions at Room Temperature in a Chiral Magnet.
abstract: A magnetic skyrmion is a nanometer-scale magnetic vortex carrying an integer topological charge. Skyrmions show a promise for potential application in low-power-consumption and high-density memory devices. To promote their use in applications, it is attempted to control the existence of skyrmions using low electric currents at room temperature (RT). This study presents real-space observations for the current-induced formation and annihilation of a skyrmion lattice (SkL) as well as isolated skyrmions in a microdevice composed of a thin chiral magnet Co8Zn9Mn3with a Curie temperature, TC≈ 325 K, above RT. It is found that the critical current for the manipulation of Bloch-type skyrmions is on the order of 108A m-2, approximately three orders of magnitude lower than that needed for the creation and drive of ferromagnetic (FM) domain walls in thin FM films. The in situ real-space imaging also demonstrates the dynamical topological transition from a helical or conical structure to a SkL induced by the flow of DC current, thus paving the way for the electrical control of magnetic skyrmions.
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Xiuzhen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Morikawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Materials Science, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, 277-8561, Japan.
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tokunaga
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, 351-0198, Japan.|Research and Development Headquarters, ROHM Co., Ltd., Kyoto, 615-8585, Japan.
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kurumaji
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oike
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Fumitaka
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kagawa
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasujiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Taguchi
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, 351-0198, Japan.|Department of Advanced Materials Science, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, 277-8561, Japan.
authors.forename: Taka-Hisa
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Arima
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, 351-0198, Japan.|Department of Applied Physics and Quantum Phase Electronics Center (QPEC), University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan.
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawasaki
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, 351-0198, Japan.|Department of Applied Physics and Quantum Phase Electronics Center (QPEC), University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tokura
keywords: DC current; chiral magnets; nucleation of skyrmions; spintronics