Mechanism for ultrafast electric-field driven skyrmion nucleation*

We show how, at ultrashort timescales, a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction can be generated in metallic thin films by an electromagnetic pulse. This interaction originates from the spin-orbit coupling between the pulse-induced electric field and the spins of the delocalized electrons of the material [1]. We perform density functional theory calculations to estimate the strength of this field-induced interaction in centrosymmetric Fe, Co, Ni, and Mn monolayers, as well as FePt and MnPt alloys. Last, using atomistic simulations, we demonstrate how an isolated antiferromagnetic skyrmion can be coherently nucleated from the collinear background by an electric field pulse at the 100-fs timescale [2]. These results provide a new handle for an ultrafast, coherent control of noncollinear magnetic states.

[1] Imamura et al., PRB 69, 121303(R) (2014) ; Hinschberger et al., PRA 93, 042117 (2016) ; Bouaziz et al., New J. Phys. 19, 023010 (2017)

[2] Desplat et al., PRB 104, L060409 (2021)