Version 1
: Received: 17 January 2019 / Approved: 24 January 2019 / Online: 24 January 2019 (07:36:44 CET)
Version 2
: Received: 12 February 2019 / Approved: 13 February 2019 / Online: 13 February 2019 (10:33:34 CET)
Jekal, S.; Danilo, A.; Phuong, D.; Zheng, X. First-Principles Prediction of Skyrmionic Phase Behavior in GdFe2 Films Capped by 4d and 5d Transition Metals. Appl. Sci.2019, 9, 630.
Jekal, S.; Danilo, A.; Phuong, D.; Zheng, X. First-Principles Prediction of Skyrmionic Phase Behavior in GdFe2 Films Capped by 4d and 5d Transition Metals. Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 630.
Abstract
In atomic GdFe$_2$ films capped by 4$d$ and 5$d$ transition metals, we show that skyrmions with diameters smaller than 12 nm can emerge. The Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya interaction (DMI), exchange energy, and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) energy were investigated based on density functional theory. Since DMI and MCA are caused by spin--orbit coupling (SOC), they are increased with 5$d$ capping layers which exhibit strong SOC strength. We discover a skyrmion phase by using atomistic spin dynamic simulations at small magnetic fields of $\sim$1 T. In addition, a ground state that a spin spiral phase is remained even at zero magnetic field for both films with 4$d$ and 5$d$ capping layers.
Keywords
skyrmion; Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction; exchange energy; magnetic anisotropy
Subject
MATERIALS SCIENCE, General Materials Science
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
