Deformation of Topologically-Protected Supercooled Skyrmions in a Thin Plate of Chiral Magnet Co8Zn8Mn4

作者：Morikawa Daisuke; Yu Xiuzhen; Karube Kosuke; Tokunaga Yusuke; Taguchi Yasujiro; Arima Taka hisa; Tokura Yoshinori

来源：Nano Letters, 2017, 17(3): 1637-1641.

DOI：10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b04821

• Skyrmion
• Lorentz transmission electron microscopy
• metastable state
• chiral magnet
• magnetic-field cooling
• topological protection

Magnetic skyrmions in Co8Zn8Mn4 thin plates are observed to deform in a metastable state prepared in a magnetic-field-cooling process by way of the thermal equilibrium skyrmion phase. In cooling, the disk-shape skyrmions change to bar- or L-shaped elongated form, whereas the skyrmion density is nearly conserved. The deformation of the skyrmions in the supercooled metastable phase is observed irrespective of the crystallographic orientation of the thin plate, whereas the elongation direction nearly aligns along the magnetic easy axis. It is proposed that the deformation should be induced by a large increase in magnetic modulation wavenumber when decreasing the temperature, whereas the topological protection of the skyrmions keeps the averaged skyrmion density constant.

• 出版日期2017-3
• 单位RIKEN