Cooperative Charge Pumping and Enhanced Skyrmion Mobility

Adel Abbout, Joseph Weston, Xavier Waintal, and Aurélien Manchon
Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 257203 – Published 19 December 2018
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Abstract

It is well known that moving magnetic textures may pump spin and charge currents along the direction of motion, a phenomenon called electronic pumping. Here, the electronic pumping arising from the steady motion of ferromagnetic skyrmions is investigated by solving the time evolution of the Schrödinger equation implemented on a tight-binding model with the statistical physics of the many-body problem. In contrast with rigid one-dimensional magnetic textures, we show that steadily moving magnetic skyrmions are able to pump large dc currents. This ability arises from their nontrivial magnetic topology, i.e., the coexistence of the spin-motive force and the topological Hall effect. Based on an adiabatic scattering theory, we compute the pumped current and demonstrate that it scales with the reflection coefficient of the conduction electrons against the skyrmion. In other words, in the semiclassical limit, reducing the size of the skyrmion and the width of the nanowire enhances this effect, making it scalable. We propose that such a phenomenon can be exploited in the context of racetrack devices, where the electronic pumping enhances the collective motion of the train of skyrmions.

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  • Received 5 April 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.257203

© 2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Adel Abbout1,*, Joseph Weston2, Xavier Waintal2, and Aurélien Manchon1,†

  • 1King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Physical Science and Engineering Division, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
  • 2University Grenoble Alpes, INAC-PHELIQS, F-38000 Grenoble, France and CEA, INAC-PHELIQS, F-38000 Grenoble, France

  • *Corresponding author. adel.abbout@kaust.edu.sa
  • Corresponding author. aurelien.manchon@kaust.edu.sa

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Issue

Vol. 121, Iss. 25 — 21 December 2018

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