- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Materials

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Editors' Suggestion
  • Open Access

Facilitating electrical and laser-induced skyrmion nucleation with a dipolar-field-enhanced effective Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

Mark C. H. de Jong1, Dinar Khusyainov2, Julian Hintermayr1, Bart Sanders1, Dmitry Kozodaev3, Aleksei V. Kimel2, Bert Koopmans1, Theo H. M. Rasing2, and Reinoud Lavrijsen1,*

  • *Contact author: r.lavrijsen@tue.nl
PDF

Phys. Rev. Materials 10, 064415 – Published 29 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1c2f-xsx6

Abstract

We demonstrate experimentally how the nucleation of skyrmions in an Ir, Co, and Pt based magnetic multilayer is affected by introducing a layer dependent sign for the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). In one stack, the bottom half of the stack is given a positive DMI and the top half a negative DMI, and as a result, the in-plane component of the dipolar field is aligned parallel to the effective field of the DMI in every layer, enhancing the effective DMI. We show that this enhanced DMI facilitates the nucleation and stability of skyrmions using both current-driven and laser-induced skyrmion nucleation. In the devices with an enhanced effective DMI, the density of nucleated skyrmions is greater by up to a factor ∼20 and skyrmions can be observed in stronger magnetic fields—suggesting that their stability is also improved. These results show that skyrmion nucleation depends strongly on the magnitude of the effective DMI in a magnetic multilayer and that the dipolar field within such a multilayer presents an effective route towards controlling the effective DMI, and thereby, the nucleation of chiral magnetic textures.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (42)

  1. R. Wiesendanger, Nanoscale magnetic skyrmions in metallic films and multilayers: A new twist for spintronics, Nat. Rev. Mater. 1, 16044 (2016).
  2. A. Fert, N. Reyren, and V. Cros, Magnetic skyrmions: Advances in physics and potential applications, Nat. Rev. Mater. 2, 17031 (2017).
  3. K. Everschor-Sitte, J. Masell, R. M. Reeve, and M. Kläui, Perspective: Magnetic skyrmions—Overview of recent progress in an active research field, J. Appl. Phys. 124, 240901 (2018).
  4. X. Zhang, Y. Zhou, K. M. Song, T.-E. Park, J. Xia, M. Ezawa, X. Liu, W. Zhao, G. Zhao, and S. Woo, Skyrmion-electronics: Writing, deleting, reading and processing magnetic skyrmions toward spintronic applications, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 32, 143001 (2020).
  5. Y. Tokura and N. Kanazawa, Magnetic skyrmion materials, Chem. Rev. 121, 2857 (2021).
  6. R. Tomasello, E. Martinez, R. Zivieri, L. Torres, M. Carpentieri, and G. Finocchio, A strategy for the design of skyrmion racetrack memories, Sci. Rep. 4, 6784 (2014).
  7. A. Soumyanarayanan, M. Raju, A. L. Gonzalez Oyarce, A. K. C. Tan, M.-Y. Im, A. P. Petrović, P. Ho, K. H. Khoo, M. Tran, C. K. Gan, F. Ernult, and C. Panagopoulos, Tunable room-temperature magnetic skyrmions in Ir/Fe/Co/Pt multilayers, Nat. Mater. 16, 898 (2017).
  8. F. Büttner, I. Lemesh, and G. S. D. Beach, Theory of isolated magnetic skyrmions: From fundamentals to room temperature applications, Sci. Rep. 8, 4464 (2018).
  9. J. Lucassen, M. J. Meijer, O. Kurnosikov, H. J. M. Swagten, B. Koopmans, R. Lavrijsen, F. Kloodt-Twesten, R. Frömter, and R. A. Duine, Tuning magnetic chirality by dipolar interactions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 157201 (2019).
  10. M. J. Meijer, J. Lucassen, F. Kloodt-Twesten, R. Frömter, O. Kurnosikov, R. A. Duine, H. J. M. Swagten, B. Koopmans, and R. Lavrijsen, Magnetic chirality controlled by the interlayer exchange interaction, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 207203 (2020).
  11. A. Hubert and R. Schaefer, 3.3 The origin of magnetic domains, in Magnetic Domains: The Analysis of Magnetic Microstructures, 3rd ed. (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1998), Chap. 3, pp. 144–169.
  12. I. Lemesh and G. S. D. Beach, Twisted domain walls and skyrmions in perpendicularly magnetized multilayers, Phys. Rev. B 98, 104402 (2018).
  13. W. Legrand, J.-Y. Chauleau, D. Maccariello, N. Reyren, S. Collin, K. Bouzehouane, N. Jaouen, V. Cros, and A. Fert, Hybrid chiral domain walls and skyrmions in magnetic multilayers, Sci. Adv. 4, eaat0415 (2018).
  14. Y. Dovzhenko, F. Casola, S. Schlotter, T. X. Zhou, F. Büttner, R. L. Walsworth, G. S. D. Beach, and A. Yacoby, Magnetostatic twists in room-temperature skyrmions explored by nitrogen-vacancy center spin texture reconstruction, Nat. Commun. 9, 2712 (2018).
  15. W. Legrand, Crafting magnetic skyrmions at room temperature: Size, stability and dynamics in multilayers, Ph.D. thesis, Univeresité Paris Saclay, 2019.
  16. C. Moreau-Luchaire, C. Moutafis, N. Reyren, J. Sampaio, C. A. F. Vaz, N. Van Horne, K. Bouzehouane, K. Garcia, C. Deranlot, P. Warnicke, P. Wohlhüter, J.-M. George, M. Weigand, J. Raabe, V. Cros, and A. Fert, Additive interfacial chiral interaction in multilayers for stabilization of small individual skyrmions at room temperature, Nat. Nanotechnol. 11, 444 (2016).
  17. S. Woo, K. Litzius, B. Krüger, M.-Y. Im, L. Caretta, K. Richter, M. Mann, A. Krone, R. M. Reeve, M. Weigand, P. Agrawal, I. Lemesh, M.-A. Mawass, P. Fischer, M. Kläui, and G. S. D. Beach, Observation of room-temperature magnetic skyrmions and their current-driven dynamics in ultrathin metallic ferromagnets, Nat. Mater. 15, 501 (2016).
  18. O. Boulle, J. Vogel, H. Yang, S. Pizzini, D. de Souza Chaves, A. Locatelli, T. O. Menteş, A. Sala, L. D. Buda-Prejbeanu, O. Klein, M. Belmeguenai, Y. Roussigné, A. Stashkevich, S. M. Chérif, L. Aballe, M. Foerster, M. Chshiev, S. Auffret, I. M. Miron, and G. Gaudin, Room-temperature chiral magnetic skyrmions in ultrathin magnetic nanostructures, Nat. Nanotechnol. 11, 449 (2016).
  19. A. Hrabec, J. Sampaio, M. Belmeguenai, I. Gross, R. Weil, S. M. Chérif, A. Stashkevich, V. Jacques, A. Thiaville, and S. Rohart, Current-induced skyrmion generation and dynamics in symmetric bilayers, Nat. Commun. 8, 15765 (2017).
  20. J. Lucassen, M. J. Meijer, M. C. H. de Jong, R. A. Duine, H. J. M. Swagten, B. Koopmans, and R. Lavrijsen, Stabilizing chiral spin structures via an alternating Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, Phys. Rev. B 102, 014451 (2020).
  21. M. C. H. de Jong, B. H. M. Smit, M. J. Meijer, J. Lucassen, H. J. M. Swagten, B. Koopmans, and R. Lavrijsen, Controlling magnetic skyrmion nucleation with Ga+ ion irradiation, Phys. Rev. B 107, 094429 (2023).
  22. L.-M. Kern, B. Pfau, V. Deinhart, M. Schneider, C. Klose, K. Gerlinger, S. Wittrock, D. Engel, I. Will, C. M. Günther, R. Liefferink, J. H. Mentink, S. Wintz, M. Weigand, M.-J. Huang, R. Battistelli, D. Metternich, F. Büttner, K. Höflich, and S. Eisebitt, Deterministic generation and guided motion of magnetic skyrmions by focused He+-ion irradiation, Nano Lett. 22, 4028 (2022).
  23. I. Lemesh, K. Litzius, M. Böttcher, P. Bassirian, N. Kerber, D. Heinze, J. Zázvorka, F. Büttner, L. Caretta, M. Mann, M. Weigand, S. Finizio, J. Raabe, M.-Y. Im, H. Stoll, G. Schütz, B. Dupé, M. Kläui, and G. S. D. Beach, Current‐induced skyrmion generation through morphological thermal transitions in chiral ferromagnetic heterostructures, Adv. Mater. 30, 1805461 (2018).
  24. See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/1c2f-xsx6 for detailed characterization, which includes Refs. [36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42].
  25. I. Lemesh, F. Büttner, and G. S. D. Beach, Accurate model of the stripe domain phase of perpendicularly magnetized multilayers, Phys. Rev. B 95, 174423 (2017).
  26. M. T. Johnson, P. J. H. Bloemen, F. J. A. den Broeder, and J. J. de Vries, Magnetic anisotropy in metallic multilayers, Rep. Prog. Phys. 59, 1409 (1996).
  27. P. Agrawal, F. Büttner, I. Lemesh, S. Schlotter, and G. S. D. Beach, Measurement of interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction from static domain imaging, Phys. Rev. B 100, 104430 (2019).
  28. M. C. H. de Jong, M. J. Meijer, J. Lucassen, J. Van Liempt, H. J. M. Swagten, B. Koopmans, and R. Lavrijsen, Local control of magnetic interface effects in chiral Ir|Co|Pt multilayers using Ga+ ion irradiation, Phys. Rev. B 105, 064429 (2022).
  29. A. Vansteenkiste, J. Leliaert, M. Dvornik, M. Helsen, F. Garcia-Sanchez, and B. Van Waeyenberge, The design and verification of MuMax3, AIP Adv. 4, 107133 (2014).
  30. T. Fache, J. C. Rojas-Sanchez, L. Badie, S. Mangin, and S. Petit-Watelot, Determination of spin Hall angle, spin mixing conductance, and spin diffusion length in CoFeB/Ir for spin-orbitronic devices, Phys. Rev. B 102, 064425 (2020).
  31. F. Büttner, B. Pfau, M. Böttcher, M. Schneider, G. Mercurio, C. M. Günther, P. Hessing, C. Klose, A. Wittmann, K. Gerlinger, L.-M. Kern, C. Strüber, C. von Korff Schmising, J. Fuchs, D. Engel, A. Churikova, S. Huang, D. Suzuki, I. Lemesh, M. Huang, et al., Observation of fluctuation-mediated picosecond nucleation of a topological phase, Nat. Mater. 20, 30 (2021).
  32. K. Gerlinger, B. Pfau, F. Büttner, M. Schneider, L.-M. Kern, J. Fuchs, D. Engel, C. M. Günther, M. Huang, I. Lemesh, L. Caretta, A. Churikova, P. Hessing, C. Klose, C. Strüber, C. Von Korff Schmising, S. Huang, A. Wittmann, K. Litzius, D. Metternich, et al., Application concepts for ultrafast laser-induced skyrmion creation and annihilation, Appl. Phys. Lett. 118, 192403 (2021).
  33. O. Eriksson, A. Bergman, L. Bergqvist, and J. Hellsvik, Atomistic Spin Dynamics: Foundations and Applications, 1st ed. (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017).
  34. R. Battistelli, L. Körber, K. Litzius, M. Grelier, K. P. Joy, M. Schneider, S. Wittrock, D. Metternich, T. Karaman, L.-M. Kern, C. Klose, S. Finizio, J. Fuchs, C. M. Günther, T. A. Butcher, K. Prokeš, R. Boltje, M. Patra, S. Wintz, M. Weigand, et al., A fluctuation-free pathway for a topological magnetic phase transition, arXiv:2512.22947.
  35. F. Büttner, I. Lemesh, M. Schneider, B. Pfau, C. M. Günther, P. Hessing, J. Geilhufe, L. Caretta, D. Engel, B. Krüger, J. Viefhaus, S. Eisebitt, and G. S. D. Beach, Field-free deterministic ultrafast creation of magnetic skyrmions by spin-orbit torques, Nat. Nanotechnol. 12, 1040 (2017).
  36. W. Legrand, D. Maccariello, N. Reyren, K. Garcia, C. Moutafis, C. Moreau-Luchaire, S. Collin, K. Bouzehouane, V. Cros, and A. Fert, Room-temperature current-induced generation and motion of sub-100 nm skyrmions, Nano Lett. 17, 2703 (2017).
  37. O. Kazakova, R. Puttock, C. Barton, H. Corte-León, M. Jaafar, V. Neu, and A. Asenjo, Frontiers of magnetic force microscopy, J. Appl. Phys. 125, 060901 (2019).
  38. C. Barton, A. F. Scarioni, B. Sakar, S. Sievers, F. Garcia-Sanchez, P. Thompson, F. Ajejas, W. Legrand, N. Reyren, T. Thomson, V. Cros, H. W. Schumacher, and O. Kazakova, Radially dependent stray field signature of chiral magnetic skyrmions, Phys. Rev. B 108, 104409 (2023).
  39. P. P. J. Haazen, E. Murè, J. H. Franken, R. Lavrijsen, H. J. M. Swagten, and B. Koopmans, Domain wall depinning governed by the spin Hall effect, Nat. Mater. 12, 299 (2013).
  40. S. Emori, U. Bauer, S.-M. Ahn, E. Martinez, and G. S. D. Beach, Current-driven dynamics of chiral ferromagnetic domain walls, Nat. Mater. 12, 611 (2013).
  41. Y. Yin, D. S. Han, M. C. H. de Jong, R. Lavrijsen, R. A. Duine, H. J. M. Swagten, and B. Koopmans, Thickness dependence of unidirectional spin-Hall magnetoresistance in metallic bilayers, Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 232405 (2017).
  42. K. Litzius, I. Lemesh, B. Krüger, P. Bassirian, L. Caretta, K. Richter, F. Büttner, K. Sato, O. A. Tretiakov, J. Förster, R. M. Reeve, M. Weigand, I. Bykova, H. Stoll, G. Schütz, G. S. D. Beach, and M. Klaüi, Skyrmion Hall effect revealed by direct time-resolved x-ray microscopy, Nat. Phys. 13, 170 (2017).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Materials 10, 064415– Published 29 June, 2026
  • Received 3 February 2026
  • Accepted 2 June 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation