Determination of chirality and density control of Néel-type skyrmions with in-plane magnetic field

Senfu Zhang, Junwei Zhang, Yan Wen, Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Xixiang Zhang

Published 2018-05-10Version 1

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected nanoscale spin textures exhibiting fascinating physical behaviors. Recent observations of room temperature N\'eel-type skyrmions in magnetic multilayer films are an important step towards their use in ultra-low power devices. We have investigated the magnetization reversal in a [Pt/Co/Ta]11 multilayer sample under a tilted magnetic field using the in-situ Lorentz tunneling electron microscopy. On decreasing the magnetic field individual skyrmions appear that subsequently evolve into snake-like structures growing in the direction opposite to the in-plane magnetic field. We show that this unusual relation between the velocity vector and the magnetic field is dominated by the chirality of the N\'eel-type skyrmions. It allows one to extract the sign of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya constant. We also demonstrate that high concentration of skyrmions can be achieved on increasing the in-plane component of the field. Our micromagnetic simulations agree with our experimental results.