Skyrmion fluctuations at a first-order phase transition boundary
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.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 04, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1063/5.0004879
Entities
People
- A. Lutman
- Alexander Reid
- B. Holladay
- E. E. Fullerton
- F.-j. Decker
- Giacomo Coslovich
- J. C. T. Lee
- J. D. Koralek
- Joshua J. Turner
- K. Nakahara
- Lin Shen
- M. Dunne
- M. F. Lin
- Matthew H. Seaberg
- P. Fischer
- Peter Walter
- Philip Hart
- Robert Streubel
- S. K. Sinha
- Sergio Montoya
- Shobhan Roy
- Sioan Zohar
- Stephen Douglas Kevan
- V. Thampy
- Vincent Esposito
- W. Colocho
- Xin Yu Zheng
Organizations
- Advanced Light Source
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific
- Office of Naval Research
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
- Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource
- Stanford University
- United States Department of Energy
- University of California, San Diego
- University of California, Santa Cruz
- University of Oregon