| 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: | Jacob Repicky, The Ohio State University |
| Authors: | J.J. Repicky, The Ohio State University J.P. Corbett, The Ohio State University T. Liu, The Ohio State University R. Bennett, The Ohio State University A. Ahmed, The Ohio State University J. Guerrero-Sanchez, National Autonomous University of Mexico R. Kawakami, The Ohio State University J.A. Gupta, The Ohio State University |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Materials with non-centrosymmetric crystal structures can host helical spin states including magnetic skyrmions. Bulk MnGe hosts a short period magnetic state (3 nm), whose structure depends strongly on atomic lattice strain, and shows a large emergent transport signature associated with the skyrmion phase. Here, we use low-temperature (5 K) spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy (SP-STM) to image the magnetic textures in MnGe thin films grown via molecular beam epitaxy and study the influence of the surface on those textures. Most microscopic locations show a spin spiral phase with a 6-8 nm period and a propagation direction that is influenced by step edges and surface termination. We also report the presence of isolated target skyrmions which have a triangular shape that appears to be set by the in-plane lattice vectors, and a core size of approximately 15 nm. We observe the target state is significantly more sensitive to magnetic fields than the spiral phase, and that local voltage and current pulses with the STM tip imply the texture can be ‘switched’ between states with different topological charge. Detailed analysis of atomic resolution STM images is used to probe the role of small lattice strain on the distinct textures. To fully understand the magnetic textures in MnGe we will expand this study by investigating films of different thicknesses to vary the magnetic anisotropy and strain.
Funding for this research was provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Grant No. 18AP00008