Imprint from ferromagnetic skyrmions in an antiferromagnet via exchange bias

Kumari Gaurav Rana (1) , Rafael Lopes Seeger (1) , Sandra Ruiz-Gómez (2) , Roméo Juge (1) , Qiang Zhang (1) , Van Tuong Pham (1) , Mohamed Belmeguenai (3) , Stéphane Auffret (1) , Michael Foerster (2) , Lucia Aballe (2) , Gilles Gaudin (1) , Vincent Baltz (1) , Olivier Boulle (1)

1 SPINTEC - SPINtronique et TEchnologie des Composants
2 ALBA Synchrotron light source [Barcelone]
3 LSPM - Laboratoire des Sciences des Procédés et des Matériaux

Magnetic skyrmions are topological spin textures holding great potential as nanoscale information carriers. Recently, skyrmions have been predicted in antiferromagnets, with key advantages in terms of stability, size and dynamical properties over their ferromagnetic analogs. However, their experimental demonstration is lacking. Here we show the imprint from ferromagnetic skyrmions into a thin film of an IrMn antiferromagnet, at room temperature and zero external magnetic field, using exchange-bias. Using the high-spatial-resolution magnetic microscopy technique XMCDPEEM, we observed the imprinted spin textures within the IrMn from the XMCD signal of the uncompensated Mn spins at the interface. This result opens up a path for logic and memory devicesbased on skyrmion manipulation in antiferromagnets.

Domaines: Matière Condensée [cond-mat]

Kumari Gaurav Rana, Rafael Lopes Seeger, Sandra Ruiz-Gómez, Roméo Juge, Qiang Zhang, et al.. Imprint from ferromagnetic skyrmions in an antiferromagnet via exchange bias. Applied Physics Letters, 2021, 119, pp.192407. ⟨10.1063/5.0066766⟩. ⟨hal-02984059v2⟩