Abstract
Magnetic skyrmions are promising as next-generation information units. Their antiparticle—the antiskyrmion—has also been discovered in chiral magnets. Here we experimentally demonstrate antiskyrmion sliding in response to a pulsed electric current at room temperature without the requirement of an external magnetic field. This is realized by embedding antiskyrmions in helical stripe domains, which naturally provide one-dimensional straight tracks along which antiskyrmion sliding can be easily launched with low current density and without transverse deflection from the antiskyrmion Hall effect. The higher mobility of the antiskyrmions in the background of helical stripes in contrast to the typical ferromagnetic state is a result of intrinsic material parameters and elastic energy of the stripe domain, thereby smearing out the random pinning potential, as supported by micromagnetic simulations. The demonstration and comprehensive understanding of antiskyrmion movement along naturally straight tracks offers a new perspective for (anti)skyrmion application in spintronics.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available within the Article and its Supplementary Information. Any other relevant data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Z. Zhong for helpful discussion. This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. XDB33030100 to Y.Z.), the Science Centre of the National Science Foundation of China (grant no. 52088101 to Y.Z. and B.S.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 52271195 to Y.Z., 52130103 to Y.Z. and S.W., 51925605 to J.S. and 52225106 to C.S.) and the CAS Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research (no. YSBR-084 to Y.Z.). The work at Los Alamos National Lab was carried out under the auspices of the US Department of Energy (DOE) NNSA under contract no. 89233218CNA000001 to S.-Z.L. through the LDRD Program, and was performed, in part, at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of the Science User Facility, operated for the US DOE Office of Science, under user proposal nos. 2018BU0010 and 2018BU0083 to S.-Z.L.
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Y.Z. and B.S. supervised the project. Z.H., Z.C. and Z.W. synthesized the Mn1.4PtSn bulk crystals. Z.H. and Y.Z. performed the L-TEM observation. Z.H., Z.L. and S.-Z.L. performed the micromagnetic simulation. Z.H., S.-Z.L., J.C. and Y.Z. analysed the experimental data and plotted the figures. Z.H., S.-Z.L. and Y.Z. wrote the manuscript after discussing the data with J.S., S.W., C.S., T.Z., J.C. and B.S.
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Supplementary Notes I–III and Figs. 1–14.
Supplementary Video 1
Antiskyrmion sliding along the straight stripe domain at a current density of je = 4.3 × 109 A m–2 at zero field and room temperature.
Supplementary Video 2
Direction reversal of antiskyrmion movement when the pulse current (je = 4.3 × 109 A m–2) is reversed to the opposite direction.
Supplementary Video 3
Current-driven behaviour of a meron pair along a helical stripe at a current density of je = 6.8 × 109 A m–2 at zero field and room temperature.
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He, Z., Li, Z., Chen, Z. et al. Experimental observation of current-driven antiskyrmion sliding in stripe domains. Nat. Mater. 23, 1048–1054 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01870-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01870-8