arXiv subjects

Shaktiranjan Mohanty

Publications and source records attributed to Shaktiranjan Mohanty.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Thermal Evolution of Skyrmions in Synthetic Ferrimagnets of Co/Gd Heterostructure for Topological Spintronic Applications

Synthetic ferrimagnetic (SFiM) multilayers offer a versatile platform for hosting skyrmions with tunable magnetic properties, combining the advantages of ferromagnets and antiferromagnets. Unlike synthetic antiferromagnets, SFiMs retain a finite magnetization that allows direct observation of magnetic textures while still benefiting from reduced dipolar fields and a suppressed skyrmion Hall effect. However, a systematic investigation of their temperature and field dependent magnetization evolution, including the labyrinthine-to-skyrmion transition in Co/Gd-based SFiMs, remains less explored. Here, we demonstrate the stabilization of 70 nm-radius skyrmions at room temperature and reveal how the Co and Gd sublattices influence the temperature-dependent net magnetization. Further, we develop a microscopic spin model for SFiM incorporating the relevant magnetic interactions, which reproduces the experimental observations and captures the temperature-dependent magnetic phase evolution. This framework highlights the interplay of fundamental interactions controlling skyrmion stability in SFiM and provides a pathway for engineering heterostructures for topological spintronic applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Effect of RKKY and dipolar interaction on the nucleation of skyrmion in Pt/Co multilayer with Ir spacer

Magnetic skyrmions, topologically protected spin textures, have emerged as promising candidates for next-generation spintronic applications. In this study, we investigate the stabilization of skyrmionic states in a uniquely engineered Pt/Co multilayer system with an Ir spacer, where both Ruderman Kittel Kasuya Yosida (RKKY) and dipolar interactions play a crucial role. The studied multilayer structure consists of a synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) configuration, where a single Ir layer facilitates strong antiferromagnetic coupling between two ferromagnetic regions: FM1 (top) and FM2 (bottom), each formed by repeated Co layers separated by Pt, enabling significant dipolar interactions. This FM1/Ir/FM2 configuration results in a distinctive skyrmionic hysteresis loop, driven by the interplay of dipolar and RKKY interactions. Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) imaging confirms the nucleation of isolated skyrmions, while magnetotransport measurements reveal a finite topological Hall effect (THE), indicating the chiral nature of these spin textures. Furthermore, we demonstrate that increasing the Co layer thickness leads to a reduction in magnetic anisotropy, which in turn results in the formation of relatively larger and denser skyrmions. Our findings establish a robust approach for stabilizing skyrmions through the combined effects of dipolar and RKKY interactions, offering new pathways for controlled skyrmion manipulation in spintronic devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Tailoring the Topological Hall Effect in Pt/Co/X (X = Ta, Re) thin films

Electron transport combined with magnetism has gained more attention to the spintronics community in the last few decades. Among them, the topological Hall effect (THE), which arises due to the emergent magnetic field of a non-trivial object, is found to be a promising tool for probing the presence of skyrmions. A sizeable Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interfacial interaction (iDMI) with reduced effective anisotropy can stabilize skyrmions in thin films. Recently, a large iDMI has been predicted in Pt/Co/Re thin film. Here, we investigate the influence of various magnetic interactions on the THE in perpendicularly magnetized Pt/Co/X (X = Ta, Re) thin films. The presence of skyrmions is confirmed via THE and magnetic force microscope (MFM) imaging. Notably, two distinct types of THE signals are observed in the different samples, which are explained using micromagnetic simulations. Our results reveal that exchange interaction, iDMI, effective anisotropy, and saturation magnetization contribute significantly in determining the variations in topological Hall resistivity behavior, which arise from different skyrmionic phases. These findings contribute to the development of novel material systems featuring different skyrmionic phases with potential applications in spintronics.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Observation of Topological Hall Effect and Skyrmions in Pt/Co/Ir/Co/Pt System

The interlayer exchange coupling (IEC) between two ferromagnetic (FM) layers separated by a non-magnetic (NM) spacer layer gives rise to different types of coupling with the variation of spacer layer thickness. When the NM is metallic, the IEC is attributed to the well known Ruderman Kittel Kasuya Yosida (RKKY) interaction which shows an oscillatory decaying nature with increasing thickness. Due to this, it is possible to tune the coupling between the two FM to be either ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic. In this work we have studied a Pt/Co/Ir/Co/Pt system where the Co thickness has been taken in the strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy regime which is much less than the spin reorientation transition thickness. By tuning the Ir thickness to 2.0 nm, a canted state of magnetization reversal in the system is observed which gives rise to a possibility of nucleating topologically non trivial spin textures like skyrmions. Further, with the combination of transport and magnetic force microscopy (MFM) measurements, we have confirmed the presence of skyrmions in our system. These findings may be useful for potential applications in emerging spintronic and data storage technologies using skyrmions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Structural deformation and irreversible magnetic properties of flexible Co/Pt and Co/Pd thin films

The successful commercialization of flexible spintronic devices requires a complete understanding of the impact of external strain on the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of a system. The impact of bending-induced strain on flexible films is studied quite well. However, little is known about the effect of other modes of flexibility, e.g., wrinkling, twisting, peeling, and stretching on the functional properties of flexible films. In this context, perpendicular magnetic anisotropic Co/Pt and Co/Pd thin films are prepared on flexible Kapton substrates, and the impact of the peeling mode is studied in detail. The peeling method generates numerous cracks, and buckling in the thin film, along with localized blister formation imaged by scanning electron microscopy. Further, the resistivity measurement confirms a significant enhancement in sample resistance owing to the severe damage of the films. The structural discontinuities strongly affect the magnetization reversal phenomena as measured by the magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE)-based microscopy. The bubble domains got converted to elongated-shaped domains due to several hindrances to the wall motion after strain application. Further, the relaxation measurements reveal that the thermal energy is insufficient to switch the magnetization at a few areas due to their high pinning potential associated with the damages. In contrast to bending-induced strain, here, all the modifications in the functional properties are found to be irreversible in nature.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Magnetoelastic anisotropy in Heusler-type Mn$_{2-δ}$CoGa$_{1+δ}$ films

Perpendicular magnetization is essential for high-density memory application using magnetic materials. High-spin polarization of conduction electrons is also required for realizing large electric signals from spin-dependent transport phenomena. Heusler alloy is a well-known material class showing the half-metallic electronic structure. However, its cubic lattice nature favors in-plane magnetization and thus minimizes the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), in general. This study focuses on an inverse-type Heusler alloy, Mn$_{2-δ}$CoGa$_{1+δ}$ (MCG) with a small off-stoichiometry ($δ$) , which is expected to be a half-metallic material. We observed relatively large uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant ($K_\mathrm{u}$) of the order of 10$^5$ J/m$^3$ at room temperature in MCG films with a small tetragonal distortion of a few percent. A positive correlation was confirmed between the $c/a$ ratio of lattice constants and $K_\mathrm{u}$. Imaging of magnetic domains using Kerr microscopy clearly demonstrated a change in the domain patterns along with $K_\mathrm{u}$. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) was employed using synchrotron radiation soft x-ray beam to get insight into the origin for PMA. Negligible angular variation of orbital magnetic moment ($Δm_\mathrm{orb}$) evaluated using the XMCD spectra suggested a minor role of the so-called Bruno's term to $K_\mathrm{u}$. Our first principles calculation reasonably explained the small $Δm_\mathrm{orb}$ and the positive correlation between the $c/a$ ratio and $K_\mathrm{u}$. The origin of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy was discussed based on the second-order perturbation theory in terms of the spin--orbit coupling, claiming that the mixing of the occupied $\uparrow$- and the unoccupied $\downarrow$-spin states is responsible for the PMA of the MCG films.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Magnetization reversal and domain structures in perpendicular synthetic antiferromagnets prepared on rigid and flexible substrates

Ferromagnetic (FM) layers separated by nonmagnetic metallic spacer layers can exhibit Ruderman Kittel Kasuya Yosida (RKKY) coupling which may lead to a stable synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) phase. In this article we study magnetization reversal in [Co/Pt] layers by varying the number of bilayer stacks (Pt/Co) as well as thickness of Ir space layer tIr on rigid Si(100) and flexible polyimide substrates. The samples with tIr = 1.0 nm shows a FM coupling whereas samples with tIr = 1.5 nm shows an AFM coupling between the FM layers. At tIr = 2.0 nm, it shows a bow-tie shaped hysteresis loop indicating a canting of magnetization at the reversal. Higher anisotropy energy as compared to the interlayer exchange coupling (IEC) energy is an indication of the smaller relative angle between the magnetization of lower and upper FM layers. We have also demonstrated the strain induced modification of IEC as well as magnetization reversal phenomena. The IEC shows a slight decrease upon application of compressive strain and increase upon application of tensile strain which indicates the potential of SAFs in flexible spintronics.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Spinterface Induced Modification in Magnetic Properties in Co40Fe40B20/Fullerene Bilayers

Organic semiconductor/ferromagnetic bilayer thin films can exhibit novel properties due to the formation of the spinterface at the interface. Buckminsterfullerene (C60) has been shown to exhibit ferromagnetism at the interface when it is placed next to a ferromagnet (FM) such as Fe or Co. Formation of spinterface occurs due to the orbital hybridization and spin polarized charge transfer at the interface. In this work, we have demonstrated that one can enhance the magnetic anisotropy of the low Gilbert damping alloy CoFeB by introducing a C60 layer. We have shown that anisotropy increases by increasing the thickness of C60 which might be a result of the formation of spinterface. However, the magnetic domain structure remains same in the bilayer samples as compared to the reference CoFeB film.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Device geometry dependent deterministic skyrmion generation from a skyrmionium

A magnetic skyrmionium can be perceived as an association of two magnetic skyrmions with opposite topological charges. In this work, we have investigated the transformation of skyrmionium into multi-skyrmionic states via domain wall (DW) pairs in three different devices with variable geometric configurations. The same device geometries were considered for single ferromagnetic layer as well as synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) system. It is observed that by tuning the current density, deterministic generation of skyrmions is possible via the spin transfer torque (STT). The proposed device is efficiently adjustable to change the number of skyrmions . The results may lead to development of skyrmion-based devices for neuromorphic and unconventional computing.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Enhancement of in-plane anisotropy in MoS2/CoFeB bilayers

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) possess novel properties which makes them potential candidates for various spintronic applications. Heterostructures of TMD with magnetic thin film have been extensively considered for spin-orbital torque, enhancement of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy etc. However, the effect of TMD on magnetic anisotropy in heterostructures of in-plane magnetization has not been studied so far. Further the effect of the TMD on the domain structure and magnetization reversal of the ferromagnetic system is another important aspect to be understood. In this context we study the effect of MoS2, a well-studied TMD material, on magnetic properties of CoFeB in MoS2/CoFeB heterostructures. The reference CoFeB film possess a weak in-plane anisotropy. However, when the CoFeB is deposited on MoS2 the in-plane anisotropy is enhanced as observed from magneto optic Kerr effect (MOKE) microscopy as well as ferromagnetic resonance (FMR). Magnetic domain structure and magnetization reversal have also been significantly modified for the MoS2/CoFeB bilayer as compared to the reference CoFeB layer. Frequency and angle dependent FMR measurement show that the magnetic anisotropy of CoFeB increases with increase in thickness of MoS2 in the MoS2/CoFeB heterostructures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Spin pumping and inverse spin Hall effect in CoFeB/IrMn heterostructures

High spin to charge conversion efficiency is the requirement for the spintronics devices which is governed by spin pumping and inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE). In last one decade, ISHE and spin pumping are heavily investigated in ferromagnet/ heavy metal (HM) heterostructures. Recently antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials are found to be good replacement of HMs because AFMs exhibit terahertz spin dynamics, high spin-orbit coupling, and absence of stray field. In this context we have performed the ISHE in CoFeB/ IrMn heterostructures. Spin pumping study is carried out for $Co_{40}Fe_{40}B_{20} (12\ nm)/ Cu (3\ nm)/ Ir_{50}Mn_{50} (t\ nm)/ AlO_{x} (3\ nm)$ samples where \textit{t} value varies from 0 to 10 nm. Damping of all the samples are higher than the single layer CoFeB which indicates that spin pumping due to IrMn is the underneath mechanism. Further the spin pumping in the samples are confirmed by angle dependent ISHE measurements. We have also disentangled other spin rectifications effects and found that the spin pumping is dominant in all the samples. From the ISHE analysis the real part of spin mixing conductance (\textit{$g_{r}^{\uparrow \downarrow}$}) is found to be 0.704 $\pm$ 0.003 $\times$ $10^{18}$ $m^{-2}$.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗