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Macroscopic manifestation of domain-wall magnetism and magnetoelectric effect in a Néel-type skyrmion host

In the article “Macroscopic manifestation of domain-wall magnetism and magnetoelectric effect in a Néel-type skyrmion host” Korbinian Geirhos, Boris Gross, Bertalan G. Szigeti, Andrea Mehlin, Simon Philipp, Jonathan S. White, Robert Cubitt, Sebastian Widmann, Somnath Ghara, Peter Lunkenheimer, Vladimir Tsurkan, Erik Neuber, Dmytro Ivaneyko, Peter Milde, Lukas M. Eng, Andrey O. Leonov, Sándor Bordács, Martino Poggio and István Kézsmárki report a magnetic state in GaV4Se8 which emerges exclusively in samples with mesoscale polar domains and not in polar mono-domain crystals.*

It is manifested by a sharp anomaly in the magnetic susceptibility and the magnetic torque, distinct from other anomalies observed also in polar mono-domain samples upon transitions between the cycloidal, the Néel-type skyrmion lattice and the ferromagnetic states. *

The authors ascribe this additional transition to the transformation of distinct magnetic textures, confined to polar domain walls (DW), to the ferromagnetic (FM) state. The emergence of these DW-confined magnetic states is likely driven by the mismatch of different spin spirals, hosted by the adjacent domains. A clear anomaly in the magneto-current indicates that the DW-confined magnetic states also have strong contributions to the magnetoelectric response. *

The authors expect polar DWs to commonly host such confined magnetic edge states and, thus, offer a fertile ground to explore novel forms of magnetism. *

To characterize the polar domains and to estimate the density of DWs in GaV4Se8, K. Geirhos et al. combined several complementary scanning probe microscopy techniques, including non-contact atomic force microscopy ( nc-AFM ), scanning dissipation microscopy ( SDM ), and frequency-modulated Kelvin-probe force microscopy ( KPFM ). *

In attempt to observe spin cycloidal and Néel-type skyrmion textures within polar domains of GaV4Se8, only evidenced by small-angle neutron scattering measurements so far43, the authors of the article also carried out magnetic force microscopy (MFM) measurements. A second purpose of the MFM study was to explore possible magnetic states confined to the vicinity of DWs, as reported in GaV4S8. *

NANOSENSORS™ SSS-QMFMR high resolution magnetic AFM probes for ultra high vacuum conditions were used for the magnetic measurements with scanning probe microscopy. *

NANOSENSORS™ conductive wear-resistant Platinum Silicide AFM probes of the PtSi-FM type were used for all other measurements described in the article. *

Supplementary Figure 1 a – d from “Macroscopic manifestation of domain-wall magnetism and magnetoelectric effect in a Néel-type skyrmion host” by K. Geirhos et al:

Typical ferroelectric do-main pattern observed on the (001) cleaved GaV4Se8 crystal surface  atT=10  K.
a, The topography is characterized by stripes roughly parallel to the [110] axis and folds parallel to the [010]  axis. The latter originate in the differently oriented distortion of the ferroelastic domains. The color scale corresponds to the z-displacement of the tip.
b ,In the dissipation channel of the nc-AFM every second domain appears bright. For the non-magnetic tip the dissipation originates from electric interactions. The dissipated power is indicated by the color scale. Please have a look at the full article to view the full supplementary figure.
NANOSENSORS Platinum Silicide PtSi-FM AFM probes were used for the imaging.
Supplementary Figure 1 a – d from “Macroscopic manifestation of domain-wall magnetism and magnetoelectric effect in a Néel-type skyrmion host” by K. Geirhos et al:

Typical ferroelectric do-main pattern observed on the (001) cleaved GaV4Se8 crystal surface  atT=10  K.
a, The topography is characterized by stripes roughly parallel to the [110] axis and folds parallel to the [010]  axis. The latter originate in the differently oriented distortion of the ferroelastic domains. The color scale corresponds to the z-displacement of the tip.
b ,In the dissipation channel of the nc-AFM every second domain appears bright. For the non-magnetic tip the dissipation originates from electric interactions. The dissipated power is indicated by the color scale. Please have a look at the full article to view the full supplementary figure.

*Korbinian Geirhos, Boris Gross, Bertalan G. Szigeti, Andrea Mehlin, Simon Philipp, Jonathan S. White, Robert Cubitt, Sebastian Widmann, Somnath Ghara, Peter Lunkenheimer, Vladimir Tsurkan, Erik Neuber, Dmytro Ivaneyko, Peter Milde, Lukas M. Eng, Andrey O. Leonov, Sándor Bordács, Martino Poggio and István Kézsmárki
Macroscopic manifestation of domain-wall magnetism and magnetoelectric effect in a Néel-type skyrmion host
npj Quantum Materials volume 5, Article number: 44 (2020)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-020-0247-z

Please follow this external link to read the full article: https://rdcu.be/b7lgW

Open Access The article “Macroscopic manifestation of domain-wall magnetism and magnetoelectric effect in a Néel-type skyrmion host” by Korbinian Geirhos, Boris Gross, Bertalan G. Szigeti, Andrea Mehlin, Simon Philipp, Jonathan S. White, Robert Cubitt, Sebastian Widmann, Somnath Ghara, Peter Lunkenheimer, Vladimir Tsurkan, Erik Neuber, Dmytro Ivaneyko, Peter Milde, Lukas M. Eng, Andrey O. Leonov, Sándor Bordács, Martino Poggio and István Kézsmárki is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.