Room-Temperature Magnetic Antiskyrmions in Canted Ferrimagnetic CoHo Alloy Films

Abstract

Magnetic antiskyrmions, the anti-quasiparticles of magnetic skyrmions, possess alternating Bloch- and Néel-type spin spirals, rendering them promising for advanced spintronics-based information storage. To date, antiskyrmions are demonstrated in a few bulk materials featuring anisotropic Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interactions and a limited number of artificial multilayers. Identifying novel film materials capable of hosting isolated antiskyrmions is critical for memory applications in topological spintronics. Herein, the formation of room-temperature antiskyrmions in single ferrimagnetic CoHo rare-metal alloy films of varying thicknesses, observed using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy is reported. Furthermore, rotating magnetic fields (H) are proposed to facilitate antiskyrmion nucleation and enhance their areal density by an order of magnitude compared to that in the same area under individual vertical H. In addition, experimental and phenomenological analysis confirm that antiskyrmion nucleation can be attributed to spin reorientation involving spontaneous canted magnetism, as evidenced by polarized neutron reflectometry. Micromagnetic simulations further show that the antiskyrmion density significantly depends on the magnitude of the rotating field. These findings expand the family of known antiskyrmion-hosting materials and provide insights into their formation mechanisms, thus serving as a basis for their application in topological spintronics.