Helium Ions Put Magnetic Skyrmions on the Track

Magnetic skyrmions are deemed to be the forerunners of novel spintronic memory and logic devices. While their observation current-driven motion at room temperature have been demonstrated, certain issues regarding nucleation, stability, pinning, skyrmion Hall effect still need overcome realize functional Here, we demonstrate that focused He+-ion-irradiation can used create guide in racetracks. We show reduction perpendicular magnetic anisotropy Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction track defined by ion-irradiation leads formation stable isolated skyrmions. Current-driven experiments simulations reveal move along irradiated track, resulting suppression effect, maximum velocity enhanced tuning properties. These results open up a new path nucleate racetrack