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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 5: Spin Textures and magnetic Phase Transitions

MA 5.5: Talk

Monday, March 7, 2016, 11:00–11:15, H34

Influence of lattice strain on the formation of magnetic skyrmions — •Julian Hagemeister, Elena Vedmedenko, and Roland Wiesendanger — University of Hamburg, Jungiusstrasse 11, D-20355 Hamburg, Germany

The properties of magnetic skyrmions have both experimentally and theoretically mainly been investigated in the context of materials providing an isotropic environment up to now. There are only few publications that deal with the influence of anisotropic environments among which is the recent report about the observation of deformed skyrmions in chiral magnets with crystal strain [1]. However, the strain is often inevitable even in epitaxially grown magnetic films. Here, the influence of spatially varying strain on the magnetic structure of spin spirals and skyrmions is studied. It is shown that a distortion of the atomic structure leading to changes in the exchange tensor results in periodic deformation of non-collinear magnetic structures. Particularly, we find that the wave vector of magnetic spirals is directly related to the periodicity of the spatial variation of the exchange interaction. This effect can induce a zigzag shape of the wave fronts as well as anisotropic skyrmion lattices, when an external magnetic field is applied. The results can be used to engineer skyrmion tracks similar to the ones proposed recently [2].

[1] K. Shibata, et al. Large anisotropic deformation of skyrmions in strained crystal Nat. Nanotechnol. 10, 589-592 (2015).

[2] Fert, A., Cros, V. & Sampaio, J. Skyrmions on the track. Nat. Nanotechnol. 8, 152-156 (2013).