Electrical Detection and Nucleation of a Magnetic Skyrmion in a Magnetic Tunnel Junction Observed via Operando Magnetic Microscopy.

Magnetic skyrmions are topological spin textures which are envisioned as nanometer scale information carriers in magnetic memory and logic devices. The recent demonstrations of room temperature skyrmions and their current induced manipulation in ultrathin films were first steps toward the realization of such devices. However, important challenges remain regarding the electrical detection and the low-power nucleation of skyrmions, which are required for the read and write operations. Here, we demonstrate, using operando magnetic microscopy experiments, the electrical detection of a single magnetic skyrmion in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) and its nucleation and annihilation by gate voltage via voltage control of magnetic anisotropy. The nucleated skyrmion can be manipulated by both gate voltages and external magnetic fields, leading to tunable intermediate resistance states. Our results unambiguously demonstrate the readout and voltage controlled write operations in a single MTJ device, which is a major milestone for low power skyrmion based technologies.

Direct Observation of Propagating Spin Waves in the 2D van der Waals Ferromagnet Fe5GeTe2.

Magnetism in reduced dimensionalities is of great fundamental interest while also providing perspectives for applications of materials with novel functionalities. In particular, spin dynamics in two dimensions (2D) have become a focus of recent research. Here, we report the observation of coherent propagating spin-wave dynamics in a ∼30 nm thick flake of 2D van der Waals ferromagnet Fe5GeTe2 using X-ray microscopy. Both phase and amplitude information were obtained by direct imaging below TC for frequencies from 2.77 to 3.84 GHz, and the corresponding spin-wave wavelengths were measured to be between 1.5 and 0.5 µm. Thus, parts of the magnonic dispersion relation were determined despite a relatively high magnetic damping of the material. Numerically solving an analytic multilayer model allowed us to corroborate the experimental dispersion relation and predict the influence of changes in the saturation magnetization or interlayer coupling, which could be exploited in future applications by temperature control or stacking of 2D-heterostructures.

Single Skyrmion Generation via a Vertical Nanocontact in a 2D Magnet-Based Heterostructure.

Skyrmions have been well studied in chiral magnets and magnetic thin films due to their potential application in practical devices. Recently, monochiral skyrmions have been observed in two-dimensional van der Waals magnets. Their atomically flat surfaces and capability to be stacked into heterostructures offer new prospects for skyrmion applications. However, the controlled local nucleation of skyrmions within these materials has yet to be realized. Here, we utilize real-space X-ray microscopy to investigate a heterostructure composed of the 2D ferromagnet Fe3GeTe2 (FGT), an insulating hexagonal boron nitride layer, and a graphite top electrode. Upon a stepwise increase of the voltage applied between the graphite and FGT, a vertically conducting pathway can be formed. This nanocontact allows the tunable creation of individual skyrmions via single nanosecond pulses of low current density. Furthermore, time-resolved magnetic imaging highlights the stability of the nanocontact, while our micromagnetic simulations reproduce the observed skyrmion nucleation process.

Deterministic Generation and Guided Motion of Magnetic Skyrmions by Focused He+-Ion Irradiation.

Magnetic skyrmions are quasiparticles with nontrivial topology, envisioned to play a key role in next-generation data technology while simultaneously attracting fundamental research interest due to their emerging topological charge. In chiral magnetic multilayers, current-generated spin-orbit torques or ultrafast laser excitation can be used to nucleate isolated skyrmions on a picosecond time scale. Both methods, however, produce randomly arranged skyrmions, which inherently limits the precision on the location at which the skyrmions are nucleated. Here, we show that nanopatterning of the anisotropy landscape with a He+-ion beam creates well-defined skyrmion nucleation sites, thereby transforming the skyrmion localization into a deterministic process. This approach allows control of individual skyrmion nucleation as well as guided skyrmion motion with nanometer-scale precision, which is pivotal for both future fundamental studies of skyrmion dynamics and applications.

Spin-Wave Emission from Vortex Cores under Static Magnetic Bias Fields.

We studied the influence of a static in-plane magnetic field on the alternating-field-driven emission of nanoscale spin waves from magnetic vortex cores. Time-resolved scanning transmission X-ray microscopy was used to image spin waves in disk structures of synthetic ferrimagnets and single ferromagnetic layers. For both systems, it was found that an increasing magnetic bias field continuously displaces the wave-emitting vortex core from the center of the disk toward its edge without noticeably altering the spin-wave dispersion relation. In the case of the single-layer disk, an anisotropic lateral expansion of the core occurs at higher magnetic fields, which leads to a directional rather than radial-isotropic emission and propagation of waves. Micromagnetic simulations confirm these findings and further show that focusing effects occur in such systems, depending on the shape of the core and controlled by the static magnetic bias field.

Deterministic Field-Free Skyrmion Nucleation at a Nanoengineered Injector Device.

Magnetic skyrmions are topological solitons promising for applications as encoders for digital information. A number of different skyrmion-based memory devices have been recently proposed. In order to demonstrate a viable skyrmion-based memory device, it is necessary to reliably and reproducibly nucleate, displace, detect, and delete the magnetic skyrmions, possibly in the absence of external applied magnetic fields, which would needlessly complicate the device design. While the skyrmion displacement and detection have both been thoroughly investigated, much less attention has been dedicated to the study of the skyrmion nucleation process and its sub-nanosecond dynamics. In this study, we investigate the nucleation of magnetic skyrmions from a dedicated nanoengineered injector, demonstrating the reliable magnetic skyrmion nucleation at the remnant state. The sub-nanosecond dynamics of the skyrmion nucleation process were also investigated, allowing us to shine light on the physical processes driving the nucleation.

Dynamic Imaging of the Delay- and Tilt-Free Motion of Néel Domain Walls in Perpendicularly Magnetized Superlattices.

We report on the time-resolved investigation of current- and field-induced domain wall motion in the flow regime in perpendicularly magnetized microwires exhibiting antisymmetric exchange interaction by means of scanning transmission X-ray microscopy with a 200 ps time step. The sub-ns time step of the dynamical images allowed us to observe the absence of incubation times for the motion of the domain wall within an uncertainty of 200 ps, together with indications for a negligible inertia of the domain wall. Furthermore, we observed that, for short current and magnetic field pulses, the magnetic domain walls do not exhibit a tilting during their motion, providing a mechanism for the fast, tilt-free, current-induced motion of magnetic domain walls.

Origin and Manipulation of Stable Vortex Ground States in Permalloy Nanotubes.

We present a detailed study on the static magnetic properties of individual permalloy nanotubes (NTs) with hexagonal cross-sections. Anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) measurements and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) are used to investigate their magnetic ground states and its stability. We find that the magnetization in zero applied magnetic field is in a very stable vortex state. Its origin is attributed to a strong growth-induced anisotropy with easy axis perpendicular to the long axis of the tubes. AMR measurements of individual NTs in combination with micromagnetic simulations allow the determination of the magnitude of the growth-induced anisotropy for different types of NT coatings. We show that the strength of the anisotropy can be controlled by introducing a buffer layer underneath the magnetic layer. The magnetic ground states depend on the external magnetic field history and are directly imaged using STXM. Stable vortex domains can be introduced by external magnetic fields and can be erased by radio-frequency magnetic fields applied at the center of the tubes via a strip line antenna.

Printing nearly-discrete magnetic patterns using chemical disorder induced ferromagnetism.

Ferromagnetism in certain alloys consisting of magnetic and nonmagnetic species can be activated by the presence of chemical disorder. This phenomenon is linked to an increase in the number of nearest-neighbor magnetic atoms and local variations in the electronic band structure due to the existence of disorder sites. An approach to induce disorder is through exposure of the chemically ordered alloy to energetic ions; collision cascades formed by the ions knock atoms from their ordered sites and the concomitant vacancies are filled randomly via thermal diffusion of atoms at room temperature. The ordered structure thereby undergoes a transition into a metastable solid solution. Here we demonstrate the patterning of highly resolved magnetic structures by taking advantage of the large increase in the saturation magnetization of Fe60Al40 alloy triggered by subtle atomic displacements. The sigmoidal characteristic and sensitive dependence of the induced magnetization on the atomic displacements manifests a sub-50 nm patterning resolution. Patterning of magnetic regions in the form of stripes separated by ∼ 40 nm wide spacers was performed, wherein the magnet/spacer/magnet structure exhibits reprogrammable parallel (↑/spacer/↑) and antiparallel (↑/spacer/↓) magnetization configurations in zero field. Materials in which the magnetic behavior can be tuned via ion-induced phase transitions may allow the fabrication of novel spin-transport and memory devices using existing lateral patterning tools.

Coherent Magnons with Giant Nonreciprocity at Nanoscale Wavelengths.

Nonreciprocal wave propagation arises in systems with broken time-reversal symmetry and is key to the functionality of devices, such as isolators or circulators, in microwave, photonic, and acoustic applications. In magnetic systems, collective wave excitations known as magnon quasiparticles have so far yielded moderate nonreciprocities, mainly observed by means of incoherent thermal magnon spectra, while their occurrence as coherent spin waves (magnon ensembles with identical phase) is yet to be demonstrated. Here, we report the direct observation of strongly nonreciprocal propagating coherent spin waves in a patterned element of a ferromagnetic bilayer stack with antiparallel magnetic orientations. We use time-resolved scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (TR-STXM) to directly image the layer-collective dynamics of spin waves with wavelengths ranging from 5 µm down to 100 nm emergent at frequencies between 500 MHz and 5 GHz. The experimentally observed nonreciprocity factor of these counter-propagating waves is greater than 10 with respect to both group velocities and specific wavelengths. Our experimental findings are supported by the results from an analytic theory, and their peculiarities are further discussed in terms of caustic spin-wave focusing.

Topology and origin of effective spin meron pairs in ferromagnetic multilayer elements.

We report on pairs of converging-diverging spin vortices in Co/Rh/NiFe trilayer disks. The lateral magnetization distribution of these effective spin merons is directly imaged by means of element-selective x-ray microscopy. By this method, both the divergence and circulation states of the individual layers are identified to be antisymmetric. Reversal measurements on corresponding continuous films reveal that biquadratic interlayer exchange coupling is the cause for the effective meron pair formation. Moreover, their three-dimensional magnetization structure is determined by micromagnetic simulations. Interestingly, the magnetic induction aligns along a flux-closing torus. This toroidal topology enforces a symmetry break, which links the core polarities to the divergence configuration.

Seeding and Emergence of Composite Skyrmions in a van der Waals Magnet.

Topological charge plays a significant role in a range of physical systems. In particular, observations of real-space topological objects in magnetic materials have been largely limited to skyrmions - states with a unitary topological charge. Recently, more exotic states with varying topology, such as antiskyrmions, merons, or bimerons and 3D states such as skyrmion strings, chiral bobbers, and hopfions, have been experimentally reported. Along these lines, the realization of states with higher-order topology has the potential to open new avenues of research in topological magnetism and its spintronic applications. Here, real-space imaging of such spin textures, including skyrmion, skyrmionium, skyrmion bag, and skyrmion sack states, observed in exfoliated flakes of the van der Waals magnet Fe3-x GeTe2 (FGT) is reported. These composite skyrmions may emerge from seeded, loop-like states condensed into the stripe domain structure, demonstrating the possibility to realize spin textures with arbitrary integer topological charge within exfoliated flakes of 2D magnets. The general nature of the formation mechanism motivates the search for composite skyrmion states in both well-known and new magnetic materials, which may yet reveal an even richer spectrum of higher-order topological objects.

Skyrmions in synthetic antiferromagnets and their nucleation via electrical current and ultra-fast laser illumination.

Magnetic skyrmions are topological spin textures that hold great promise as nanoscale information carriers in non-volatile memory and logic devices. While room-temperature magnetic skyrmions and their current-induced motion were recently demonstrated, the stray field resulting from their finite magnetisation and their topological charge limit their minimum size and reliable motion. Antiferromagnetic skyrmions allow to lift these limitations owing to their vanishing magnetisation and net zero topological charge, promising ultra-small and ultra-fast skyrmions. Here, we report on the observation of isolated skyrmions in compensated synthetic antiferromagnets at zero field and room temperature using X-ray magnetic microscopy. Micromagnetic simulations and an analytical model confirm the chiral antiferromagnetic nature of these skyrmions and allow the identification of the physical mechanisms controlling their size and stability. Finally, we demonstrate the nucleation of synthetic antiferromagnetic skyrmions via local current injection and ultra-fast laser excitation.

Reconfigurable submicrometer spin-wave majority gate with electrical transducers.

Spin waves are excitations in ferromagnetic media that have been proposed as information carriers in hybrid spintronic devices with much lower operation power than conventional charge-based electronics. Their wave nature can be exploited in majority gates by using interference for computation. However, a scalable spin-wave majority gate that can be cointegrated alongside conventional electronics is still lacking. Here, we demonstrate a submicrometer inline spin-wave majority gate with fan-out. Time-resolved imaging of the magnetization dynamics by scanning transmission x-ray microscopy illustrates the device operation. All-electrical spin-wave spectroscopy further demonstrates majority gates with submicrometer dimensions, reconfigurable input and output ports, and frequency-division multiplexing. Challenges for hybrid spintronic computing systems based on spin-wave majority gates are discussed.

Optically Inspired Nanomagnonics with Nonreciprocal Spin Waves in Synthetic Antiferromagnets.

Integrated optically inspired wave-based processing is envisioned to outperform digital architectures in specific tasks, such as image processing and speech recognition. In this view, spin waves represent a promising route due to their nanoscale wavelength in the gigahertz frequency range and rich phenomenology. Here, a versatile, optically inspired platform using spin waves is realized, demonstrating the wavefront engineering, focusing, and robust interference of spin waves with nanoscale wavelength. In particular, magnonic nanoantennas based on tailored spin textures are used for launching spatially shaped coherent wavefronts, diffraction-limited spin-wave beams, and generating robust multi-beam interference patterns, which spatially extend for several times the spin-wave wavelength. Furthermore, it is shown that intriguing features, such as resilience to back reflection, naturally arise from the spin-wave nonreciprocity in synthetic antiferromagnets, preserving the high quality of the interference patterns from spurious counterpropagating modes. This work represents a fundamental step toward the realization of nanoscale optically inspired devices based on spin waves.

Extracting the Dynamic Magnetic Contrast in Time-Resolved X-ray Transmission Microscopy.

Using a time-resolved detection scheme in scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM), we measured element resolved ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) at microwave frequencies up to 10 GHz and a spatial resolution down to 20 nm at two different synchrotrons. We present different methods to separate the contribution of the background from the dynamic magnetic contrast based on the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) effect. The relative phase between the GHz microwave excitation and the X-ray pulses generated by the synchrotron, as well as the opening angle of the precession at FMR can be quantified. A detailed analysis for homogeneous and inhomogeneous magnetic excitations demonstrates that the dynamic contrast indeed behaves as the usual XMCD effect. The dynamic magnetic contrast in time-resolved STXM has the potential be a powerful tool to study the linear and nonlinear, magnetic excitations in magnetic micro- and nano-structures with unique spatial-temporal resolution in combination with element selectivity.

Emission and propagation of 1D and 2D spin waves with nanoscale wavelengths in anisotropic spin textures.

Spin waves offer intriguing perspectives for computing and signal processing, because their damping can be lower than the ohmic losses in conventional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuits. Magnetic domain walls show considerable potential as magnonic waveguides for on-chip control of the spatial extent and propagation of spin waves. However, low-loss guidance of spin waves with nanoscale wavelengths and around angled tracks remains to be shown. Here, we demonstrate spin wave control using natural anisotropic features of magnetic order in an interlayer exchange-coupled ferromagnetic bilayer. We employ scanning transmission X-ray microscopy to image the generation of spin waves and their propagation across distances exceeding multiples of the wavelength. Spin waves propagate in extended planar geometries as well as along straight or curved one-dimensional domain walls. We observe wavelengths between 1 µm and 150 nm, with excitation frequencies ranging from 250 MHz to 3 GHz. Our results show routes towards the practical implementation of magnonic waveguides in the form of domain walls in future spin wave logic and computational circuits.

Tunable geometrical frustration in magnonic vortex crystals.

A novel approach to investigate geometrical frustration is introduced using two-dimensional magnonic vortex crystals. The frustration of the crystal can be manipulated and turned on and off dynamically on the timescale of milliseconds. The vortices are studied using scanning transmission x-ray microscopy and ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy. They are arranged analogous to the nanomagnets in artificial spin-ice systems. The polarization state of the vortices is tuned in a way that geometrical frustration arises. We demonstrate that frustrated polarization states and non-frustrated states can be tuned to the crystal by changing the frequency of the state formation process.

Unexpected field-induced dynamics in magnetostrictive microstructured elements under isotropic strain.

We investigated the influence of an isotropic strain on the magnetization dynamics of microstructured magnetostrictive Co40Fe40B20 (CoFeB) elements with time-resolved scanning transmission x-ray microscopy. We observed that the application of isotropic strain leads to changes in the behavior of the microstructured magnetostrictive elements that cannot be fully explained by the volume magnetostriction term. Therefore, our results prompt for an alternative explanation to the current models used for the interpretation of the influence of mechanical strain on the dynamical processes of magnetostrictive materials.

Laser-Rewriteable Ferromagnetism at Thin-Film Surfaces.

Manipulation of magnetism using laser light is considered as a key to the advancement of data storage technologies. Until now, most approaches seek to optically switch the direction of magnetization rather than to reversibly manipulate the ferromagnetism itself. Here, we use ∼100 fs laser pulses to reversibly switch ferromagnetic ordering on and off by exploiting a chemical order-disorder phase transition in Fe60Al40, from the B2 to the A2 structure and vice versa. A single laser pulse above a threshold fluence causes nonferromagnetic B2 Fe60Al40 to disorder and form the ferromagnetic A2 structure. Subsequent laser pulsing below the threshold reverses the surface to B2 Fe60Al40, erasing the laser-induced ferromagnetism. Simulations reveal that the order-disorder transition is regulated by the extent of surface supercooling; above the threshold for complete melting throughout the film thickness, the liquid phase can be deeply undercooled before solidification. As a result, the vacancy diffusion in the resolidified region is limited and the region is trapped in the metastable chemically disordered state. Laser pulsing below the threshold forms a limited supercooled surface region that solidifies at sufficiently high temperatures, enabling diffusion-assisted reordering. This demonstrates that ultrafast lasers can achieve subtle atomic rearrangements in bimetallic alloys in a reversible and nonvolatile fashion.