| AVS 66th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Division | Thursday Sessions |
| Session MI+2D+AS+EM-ThM |
| Session: | Novel Magnetic Materials and Device Concept for Energy efficient Information Processing and Storage |
| Presenter: | Joseph Corbett, The Ohio State University |
| Authors: | J.P. Corbett, The Ohio State University J. Rowland, The Ohio State University A. Ahmed, The Ohio State University J.J. Repicky, The Ohio State University K. Meng, The Ohio State Univesity F.Y. Yang, The Ohio State University M. Randeria, The Ohio State University J.A. Gupta, The Ohio State University |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
We imaged isolated <10 nm sized skyrmions in SrIrO3 on SrRuO3 by spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. We fabricated bilayers of 2 unit cells of SrIrO3 atop of 10 unit cells of SrRuO3 via off-axis sputtering. This thickness combination was selected because it showed a strong topological hall signal. We observed a granular morphology of SrIrO3 mounds with rare patches of exposed SrRuO3. We can distinguish SrIrO3 from SrRuO3 by scanning tunneling spectroscopy where, SrIrO3 grains show a gap-like feature, while SrRuO3 have states near the Fermi level. The height histogram of the observed granular structures is consistent with an average of 2 unit cells of SrIrO3. The grains of the SrIrO3 appear to act as a nucleation for skyrmion formation. Similarly, we’ve imaged skyrmions under applied +/- 1 T fields demonstrating their magnetic character by observing an inversion in magnetic contrast. We found that the number of SrIrO3 unit cells did not determine skyrmion formation, but the size of the skymrion was linked to the grain size, i.e. the skyrmion formed roughly the size of the grain. Furthermore, we’ve been able to manipulate the skyrmions by utilizing the influence of the tip. On-going investigations into the mechanism of the magnetic manipulation of the skyrmion are underway, as well theoretical modeling of the isolated skyrmion to ascertain the local Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction constant.