Electric field writing and erasing of skyrmions in magnetoelectric Cu2OSeO3 with an ultralow energy barrier

Abstract

Skyrmions are chiral magnetic textures with non-trivial topology, and due to their unique properties they are widely considered as promising information carriers in novel magnetic storage applications. While electric field writing/erasing and manipulation of skyrmions have been recently achieved, quantitative insights into the energetics of those phenomena remain scarce. Here, we report our in situ electric field writing/erasing of skyrmions in magnetoelectric helimagnet Cu₂OSeO₃ utilizing real-space and real-time Lorentz transmission electron macroscopy. Through the quantitavie analysis on our massive video data, we obtained a linear dependence of the number of skyrmions on the amplitude of the applied electric field, from which a local energy barried to write/erase skyrmions is estimated to be per skyrmion. Such an ultralow energy barrier implies the potential of precise control of skyrmions in future spintronics applications.