Tuesday, April 24, 2012

1204.5051 (Karin Everschor et al.)

Rotating skyrmion lattices by spin torques and field or temperature
gradients
   [PDF]

Karin Everschor, Markus Garst, Benedikt Binz, Florian Jonietz, Sebastian Mühlbauer, Christian Pfleiderer, Achim Rosch
Chiral magnets like MnSi form lattices of skyrmions, i.e. magnetic whirls, which react sensitively to small electric currents j above a critical current density jc. The interplay of these currents with tiny gradients of either the magnetic field or the temperature can induce a rotation of the magnetic pattern for j>jc. Either a rotation by a finite angle of up to 15 degree or -- for larger gradients -- a continuous rotation with a finite angular velocity is induced. We use Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations extended by extra damping terms in combination with a phenomenological treatment of pinning forces to develop a theory of the relevant rotational torques. Experimental neutron scattering data on the angular distribution of skyrmion lattices suggests that continuously rotating domains are easy to obtain in the presence of remarkably small currents and temperature gradients.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.5051

No comments:

Post a Comment