ABSTRACT
Magnetic skyrmions are compact chiral spin textures that exhibit a rich variety of topological phenomena and hold potential for the development of high-density memory devices and novel computing schemes driven by spin currents. Here, we demonstrate the room-temperature interfacial stabilization and current-driven control of skyrmion bubbles in the ferrimagnetic insulator Tm3Fe5O12 coupled to Pt, showing the current-induced motion of individual skyrmion bubbles. The ferrimagnetic order of the crystal together with the interplay of spin-orbit torques and pinning determine the skyrmion dynamics in Tm3Fe5O12 and result in a strong skyrmion Hall effect characterized by a negative deflection angle and hopping motion. Further, we show that the velocity and depinning threshold of the skyrmion bubbles can be modified by exchange coupling Tm3Fe5O12 to an in-plane magnetized Y3Fe5O12 layer, which distorts the spin texture of the skyrmions and leads to directional-dependent rectification of their dynamics. This effect, which is equivalent to a magnetic ratchet, is exploited to control the skyrmion flow in a racetrack-like device.
ABSTRACT
Recent reports of current-induced switching of ferrimagnetic oxides coupled to heavy metals have opened prospects for implementing magnetic insulators into electrically addressable devices. However, the configuration and dynamics of magnetic domain walls driven by electrical currents in insulating oxides remain unexplored. Here we investigate the internal structure of the domain walls in Tm3Fe5O12 (TmIG) and TmIG/Pt bilayers, and demonstrate their efficient manipulation by spin-orbit torques with velocities of up to 400 ms-1 and minimal current threshold for domain wall flow of 5 × 106 A cm-2. Domain wall racetracks are defined by Pt current lines on continuous TmIG films, which allows for patterning the magnetic landscape of TmIG in a fast and reversible way. Scanning nitrogen-vacancy magnetometry reveals that the domain walls of TmIG thin films grown on Gd3Sc2Ga3O12 exhibit left-handed Néel chirality, changing to an intermediate Néel-Bloch configuration upon Pt deposition. These results indicate the presence of interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in magnetic garnets, opening the possibility to stabilize chiral spin textures in centrosymmetric magnetic insulators.