Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected spin textures with promising prospects for applications in data storage. They can form a lattice state due to competing magnetic interactions and are commonly found in a small region of the temperature—magnetic field phase diagram. Recent work has demonstrated that these magnetic quasi-particles fluctuate at the μeV energy scale. Here, we use a coherent x-ray correlation method at an x-ray free-electron laser to investigate these fluctuations in a magnetic phase coexistence region near a first-order transition boundary where fluctuations are not expected to play a major role. Surprisingly, we find that the relaxation of the intermediate scattering function at this transition differs significantly compared to that deep in the skyrmion lattice phase. The observation of a compressed exponential behavior suggests solid-like dynamics, often associated with jamming. We assign this behavior to disorder and the phase coexistence observed in a narrow field-window near the transition, which can cause fluctuations that lead to glassy behavior.
Source: Applied Physics Letters
DOI: 10.1063/5.0004879
Authors: V. Esposito, X. Y. Zheng, M. H. Seaberg, S. A. Montoya, B. Holladay, A. H. Reid, R. Streubel, J. C. T. Lee, L. Shen, J. D. Koralek, G. Coslovich, P. Walter, S. Zohar, V. Thampy, M. F. Lin, P. Hart, K. Nakahara, P. Fischer, W. Colocho, A. Lutman, F.-J. Decker, S. K. Sinha, E. E. Fullerton, S. D. Kevan, S. Roy, M. Dunne, J. J. Turner
Institutions: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Linac Coherent Light Source, Stanford University, Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, University of California San Diego, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Oregon, Advanced Light Source, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, University of California, Santa Cruz
Language: English
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W3022736622