Guang Yao, Peng Yong, Yan Zhengren, Liu Yizhou, Zhang Junwei, Zeng Xue, Zhang Senfu, Zhang Shilei, Burn David M, Jaouen Nicolas, Wei Jinwu, Xu Hongjun, Feng Jiafeng, Fang Chi, van der Laan Gerrit, Hesjedal Thorsten, Cui Baoshan, Zhang Xixiang, Yu Guoqiang, Han Xiufeng
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Adv Mater. 2020 Oct;32(39):e2003003. doi: 10.1002/adma.202003003. Epub 2020 Aug 18.
The emergence of magnetic skyrmions, topological spin textures, has aroused tremendous interest in studying the rich physics related to their topology. While skyrmions promise high-density and energy-efficient magnetic memory devices for information technology, the manifestation of their nontrivial topology through single skyrmions and ordered and disordered skyrmion lattices could also give rise to many fascinating physical phenomena, such as chiral magnon and skyrmion glass states. Therefore, generating skyrmions at designated locations on a large scale, while controlling the skyrmion patterns, is the key to advancing topological magnetism. Here, a new, yet general, approach to the "printing" of skyrmions with zero-field stability in arbitrary patterns on a massive scale in exchange-biased magnetic multilayers is presented. By exploiting the fact that the antiferromagnetic order can be reconfigured by local thermal excitations, a focused electron beam with a graphic pattern generator to "print" skyrmions is used, which is referred to as skyrmion lithography. This work provides a route to design arbitrary skyrmion patterns, thereby establishing the foundation for further exploration of topological magnetism.
磁性斯格明子，即拓扑自旋纹理的出现，引发了人们对研究与其拓扑结构相关的丰富物理现象的极大兴趣。虽然斯格明子有望为信息技术带来高密度且节能的磁存储设备，但它们非平凡拓扑结构通过单个斯格明子以及有序和无序斯格明子晶格的表现，也可能引发许多迷人的物理现象，如手性磁振子和斯格明子玻璃态。因此，在大规模指定位置生成斯格明子并同时控制斯格明子图案，是推动拓扑磁学发展的关键。在此，我们提出了一种全新且通用的方法，可在交换偏置磁性多层膜中大规模地以任意图案“打印”具有零场稳定性的斯格明子。通过利用反铁磁序可由局部热激发重新配置这一事实，我们使用了带有图形图案发生器的聚焦电子束来“打印”斯格明子，这被称为斯格明子光刻技术。这项工作为设计任意斯格明子图案提供了一条途径，从而为进一步探索拓扑磁学奠定了基础。
