TY  - JOUR
AU  - Arjana, I Gede
AU  - Lima Fernandes, Imara
AU  - Chico, Jonathan
AU  - Lounis, Samir
TI  - Sub-nanoscale atom-by-atom crafting of skyrmion-defect interaction profiles
JO  - Scientific reports
VL  - 10
IS  - 1
SN  - 2045-2322
CY  - [London]
PB  - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature
M1  - FZJ-2020-02813
SP  - 14655
PY  - 2020
AB  - Magnetic skyrmions are prime candidates as information carriers for spintronic devices due to their topological nature and nanometric size. However, unavoidable inhomogeneities inherent to any material leads to pinning or repulsion of skyrmions that, in analogy to biology concepts, define the phenotype of the skyrmion-defect interaction, generating complexity in their motion and challenging their application as future bits of information. Here, we demonstrate that atom-by-atom manufacturing of multi-atomic defects, being antiferromagnetic or ferromagnetic, permits the breeding of their energy profiles, for which we build schematically a Punnet-square. As established from first-principles for skyrmions generated in PdFe bilayer on Ir(111) surface, the resulting interaction phenotype is rich. It can be opposite to the original one and eventually be of dual pinning-repulsive nature yielding energy landscapes hosting multi-domains. This is dictated by the stacking site, geometry, size and chemical nature of the adsorbed defects, which control the involved magnetic interactions. This work provides new insights towards the development of disruptive device architectures incorporating defects into their design aiming to control and guide skyrmions.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - 32887911
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000608604100005
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-71232-2
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/878373
ER  -