Transition to and from the skyrmion lattice phase by electric fields in a magnetoelectric compound.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27580648.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms12669 and PMC identifier 5025781.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Dissipation-less electric control of magnetic state variable is an important target of contemporary spintronics. The non-volatile control of magnetic skyrmions, nanometre-sized spin-swirling objects, with electric fields may exemplify this goal. The skyrmion-hosting magnetoelectric chiral magnet Cu2OSeO3 provides a unique platform for the implementation of such control; however, the hysteresis that accompanies the first-order transition associated with the skyrmion phase is negligibly narrow in practice. Here we demonstrate another method that functions irrespective of the transition boundary. Combination of magnetic-susceptibility measurements and microwave spectroscopy reveals that although the metastable skyrmion lattice is normally hidden behind a more thermodynamically stable conical phase, it emerges under electric fields and persists down to the lowest temperature. Once created, this metastable skyrmion lattice remains without electric fields, establishing a bistability distinct from the transition hysteresis. This bistability thus enables non-volatile electric-field control of the skyrmion lattice even in temperature/magnetic-field regions far from the transition boundary.