arXiv subjects

K. Fallon

Publications and source records attributed to K. Fallon.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Materials for Quantum Technologies: a Roadmap for Spin and Topology

In this Perspective article, we explore some of the promising spin and topology material platforms (e.g. spins in semi- and superconductors, skyrmionic, topological and 2D materials) being developed for such quantum components as qubits, superconducting memories, sensing, and metrological standards and discuss their figures of merit. Spin- and topology-related quantum phenomena have several advantages, including high coherence time, topological protection and stability, low error rate, relative ease of engineering and control, simple initiation and read-out. However, the relevant technologies are at different stages of research and development, and here we discuss their state-of-the-art, potential applications, challenges and solutions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Quantitative imaging of hybrid chiral spin textures in magnetic multilayer systems by Lorentz microscopy

Chiral magnetic textures in ultrathin perpendicularly magnetised multilayer film stacks with an interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction have been the focus of much research recently. The chirality associated with the broken inversion symmetry at the interface between an ultrathin ferromagnetic layer and a heavy metal with large spin-orbit coupling supports homochiral N\'eel domain walls and hedgehog (N\'eel) skyrmions. Under spin-orbit torques these N\'eel type magnetic structures are predicted, and have been measured, to move at high velocities. However recent studies have indicated that some multilayered systems may possess a more complex hybrid domain wall configuration, due to the competition between interfacial DMI and interlayer dipolar fields. These twisted textures are expected to have thickness dependent N\'eel and Bloch contributions to the domain or skyrmion walls. In this work, we use the methods of Lorentz microscopy to measure quantitatively for the first time experimentally both; i) the contributions of the N\'eel and Bloch contributions and ii) their spatial spin variation at high resolution. These are compared with modelled and simulated structures which are in excellent agreement with our experimental results. Our quantitative analysis provides powerful direct evidence of the Bloch wall component which exists in these hybrid walls and will be significant when exploiting such phenomena in spintronic applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic phase domain development in nanopatterned FeRh islands

The antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic phase transition in B2-ordered FeRh is imaged in laterally confined nanopatterned islands using photoemission electron microscopy with x-ray magnetic circular dichroism contrast. The resulting magnetic images directly detail the progression in the shape and size of the FM phase domains during heating and cooling through the transition. In 5 um square islands this domain development during heating is shown to proceed in three distinct modes: nucleation, growth, and merging, each with subsequently greater energy costs. In 0.5 um islands, which are smaller than the typical final domain size, the growth mode is stunted and the transition temperature was found to be reduced by 20 K. The modification to the transition temperature is found by high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy to be due to a 100 nm chemically disordered edge grain present as a result of ion implantation damage during the patterning. FeRh has unique possibilities for magnetic memory applications; the inevitable changes to its magnetic properties due to subtractive nanofabrication will need to be addressed in future work in order to progress from sheet films to suitable patterned devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

A transmission electron microscope study of N\'eel skyrmion magnetic textures in multilayer thin film systems with large interfacial chiral interaction

Skyrmions in ultrathin ferromagnetic metal (FM)/heavy metal (HM) multilayer systems produced by conventional sputtering methods have recently generated huge interest due to their applications in the field of spintronics. The sandwich structure with two correctly-chosen heavy metal layers provides an additive interfacial exchange interaction which promotes domain wall or skyrmion spin textures that are N\'eel in character and with a fixed chirality. Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a high resolution method ideally suited to quantitatively image such chiral magnetic configurations. When allied with physical and chemical TEM analysis of both planar and cross-sectional samples, key length scales such as grain size and the chiral variation of the magnetisation variation have been identified and measured. We present data showing the importance of the grain size (mostly < 10nm) measured from direct imaging and its potential role in describing observed behaviour of isolated skyrmions (diameter < 100nm). In the latter the region in which the magnetization rotates is measured to be around 30 nm. Such quantitative information on the multiscale magnetisation variations in the system is key to understanding and exploiting the behaviour of skyrmions for future device applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Pinning and hysteresis in the field dependent diameter evolution of skyrmions in Pt/Co/Ir superlattice stacks

We have imaged N\'eel skyrmion bubbles in perpendicularly magnetised polycrystalline multilayers patterned into 1 \mu m diameter dots, using scanning transmission x-ray microscopy. The skyrmion bubbles can be nucleated by the application of an external magnetic field and are stable at zero field with a diameter of 260 nm. Applying an out of plane field that opposes the magnetisation of the skyrmion bubble core moment applies pressure to the bubble and gradually compresses it to a diameter of approximately 100 nm. On removing the field the skyrmion bubble returns to its original diameter via a hysteretic pathway where most of the expansion occurs in a single abrupt step. This contradicts analytical models of homogeneous materials in which the skyrmion compression and expansion are reversible. Micromagnetic simulations incorporating disorder can explain this behaviour using an effective thickness modulation between 10 nm grains.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗