Configurable pixelated skyrmions on nanoscale magnetic grids

Abstract

Topological spin textures can serve as non-volatile information carriers. Here we study the current-induced dynamics of an isolated magnetic skyrmion on a nanoscale square-grid pinning pattern formed by orthogonal defect lines with reduced magnetic anisotropy. The skyrmion on the square grid can be pixelated with a quantized size of the grid. We demonstrate that the position, size, and shape of skyrmion on the square grid are electrically configurable. The skyrmion center is quantized to be on the grid and the skyrmion may show a hopping motion instead of a continuous motion. We find that the skyrmion Hall effect can be perfectly prohibited due to the pinning effect of the grid. The pixelated skyrmion can be harnessed to build future programmable racetrack memory, multistate memory, and logic computing device. Our results will be a basis for digital information storage and computation based on pixelated topological spin textures on artificial pinning patterns.