Intrinsic stability of magnetic anti-skyrmions in the tetragonal inverse Heusler compound Mn1.4Pt0.9Pd0.1Sn

Rana Saha, Abhay K. Srivastava, Tianping Ma, Jagannath Jena, P. Werner, Vivek Kumar, Claudia Felser, S. Parkin

Nature Communications · 2019 · 50 citations · 29 references

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Abstract

Abstract Magnetic anti-skyrmions are one of several chiral spin textures that are of great current interest both for their topological characteristics and potential spintronic applications. Anti-skyrmions were recently observed in the inverse tetragonal Heusler material Mn 1.4 Pt 0.9 Pd 0.1 Sn. Here we show, using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy, that anti-skyrmions are found over a wide range of temperature and magnetic fields in wedged lamellae formed from single crystals of Mn 1.4 Pt 0.9 Pd 0.1 Sn for thicknesses ranging up to ~250 nm. The temperature-field stability window of the anti-skyrmions varies little with thickness. Using micromagnetic simulations we show that this intrinsic stability of anti-skyrmions can be accounted for by the symmetry of the crystal lattice which is imposed on that of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya exchange interaction. These distinctive behaviors of anti-skyrmions makes them particularly attractive for spintronic applications.

References

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