Phys.org September 16, 2023
The low stability of most magnetic skyrmions leads to either a narrow temperature range in which they can exist, a low density of skyrmions, or the need for an external magnetic field, which greatly limits their wide application. An international team of researchers (USA – NIST, Japan, South Korea) has reported real-space imaging of a two-dimensional skyrmion lattice in a thin film of Fe0.5Co0.5Si using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy. With a magnetic field of 50–70 mT applied normal to the film, they observed skyrmions in the form of a hexagonal arrangement of swirling spin textures, with a lattice spacing of 90 nm. The related T–B phase diagram was found to be in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations. In this two-dimensional case, the skyrmion crystal seemed very stable and appeared over a wide range of the phase diagram, including near zero temperature. According to the researchers a controlled nanometre-scale spin topology in a thin film may be useful in observing unconventional magneto-transport effects… read more. 1. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE , 2  TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Evolution of the FIM structure with temperature for HoCo3.
Credit: SCIENCE ADVANCES, 6 Sep 2023, Vol 9, Issue 36