Skyrmionics in correlated oxides

While chiral magnets, metal-based magnetic multilayers, or Heusler compounds have been considered as the material workhorses in the field of skyrmionics, oxides are now emerging as promising alternatives, as they host special correlations between the spin–orbital–charge–lattice degrees of freedom and/or coupled ferroic order parameters. These interactions open new possibilities for practically exploiting skyrmionics. In this article, we review the recent advances in the observation and control of topological spin textures in various oxide systems. We start with the discovery of skyrmions and related quasiparticles in bulk and heterostructure ferromagnetic oxides. Next, we emphasize the shortcomings of implementing ferromagnetic textures, which have led to the recent explorations of ferrimagnetic and antiferromagnetic oxide counterparts, with higher Curie temperatures, stray-field immunity, low Gilbert damping, ultrafast magnetic dynamics, and/or absence of skyrmion deflection. Then, we highlight the development of novel pathways to control the stability, motion, and detection of topological textures using electric fields and currents. Finally, we present the outstanding challenges that need to be overcome to achieve all-electrical, nonvolatile, low-power oxide skyrmionic devices. Graphical abstract

Enhanced thermoelectric properties of polycrystalline CuCrS2-xSex (x = 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2) samples by replacing chalcogens and sintering

The optimization of thermoelectric properties of the CuCrS2-xSex (x = 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2) samples was achieved by substitution in anionic sublattice and sintering at high temperature. The maximum power factor PF ~ 0.3 mW/m•K^2 among a series of samples with chalcogen substitution was obtained for CuCrS0.5Se1.5 sample at T=300 K. The sintering made it possible to obtain the maximum value PF ~ 2.1 mW/m•K2 for CuCrSe2 sample. This is due to a more than threefold increase in the thermoelectric power S(T) in CuCrSe2 sample with a spin-orbital interaction in comparison with CuCrS0.5Se1.5 sample with the same optimal electrical conductivity σ (σ300K ~ 100 S/cm), but without spin-orbital interaction. In CuCrSe2 sample, sintering effectively reduced the s to an optimal value, suppressed of the magnetic phase transition in the range of 50-100 K, and the weak localization were replaced by weak antilocalization indicating the appearance of strong spin-orbit interaction below 20 K. As a result, an additional contribution to the S(T) appeared due to the filtration of current carriers caused by the strong spin-orbit interaction. The effect of grain boundaries on the properties σ(T) and S(T) of the samples was investigated. It was established that polycrystalline samples with a high sulfur content were low-conductivity materials consisting of high-conductivity crystallites with the charge carriers concentration n ~ 1020 cm-3 separated by low-conductivity grain boundaries with fluctuation-induced tunneling conductivity. Both the replacement of sulfur with selenium and sintering led to a decrease in the energy barriers connecting grain boundaries. Selenium-dominated samples (CuCrS0.5Se1.5 and CuCrSe2) had high electrical conductivity with negligible energy barriers between grain boundaries. Logarithmic quantum corrections to the electrical conductivity was observed below 20 K, which indicated a quasi-two-dimensional electron transport in these samples.

Magnetic Topology in Coupled Binaries, Spin-orbital Resonances, and Flares

We consider topological configurations of the magnetically coupled spinning stellar binaries (e.g., merging neutron stars or interacting star–planet systems). We discuss conditions when the stellar spins and the orbital motion nearly “compensate” each other, leading to very slow overall winding of the coupled magnetic fields; slowly winding configurations allow gradual accumulation of magnetic energy, which is eventually released in a flare when the instability threshold is reached. We find that this slow winding can be global and/or local. We describe the topology of the relevant space F = T 1 S 2 as the unit tangent bundle of the two-sphere and find conditions for slowly winding configurations in terms of magnetic moments, spins, and orbital momentum. These conditions become ambiguous near the topological bifurcation points; in certain cases, they also depend on the relative phases of the spin and orbital motions. In the case of merging magnetized neutron stars, if one of the stars is a millisecond pulsar, spinning at ∼10 ms, the global resonance ω 1 + ω 2 = 2Ω (spin-plus beat is two times the orbital period) occurs approximately one second before the merger; the total energy of the flare can be as large as 10% of the total magnetic energy, producing bursts of luminosity ∼1044 erg s−1. Higher order local resonances may have similar powers, since the amount of involved magnetic flux tubes may be comparable to the total connected flux.

Gate-Voltage-Modulated Spin Precession in Graphene/WS2 Field-Effect Transistors

Transition metal dichalcogenide materials are studied to investigate unexplored research avenues, such as spin transport behavior in 2-dimensional materials due to their strong spin-orbital interaction (SOI) and the proximity effect in van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures. Interfacial interactions between bilayer graphene (BLG) and multilayer tungsten disulfide (ML-WS2) give rise to fascinating properties for the realization of advanced spintronic devices. In this study, a BLG/ML-WS2 vdW heterostructure spin field-effect transistor (FET) was fabricated to demonstrate the gate modulation of Rashba-type SOI and spin precession angle. The gate modulation of Rashba-type SOI and spin precession has been confirmed using the Hanle measurement. The change in spin precession angle agrees well with the local and non-local signals of the BLG/ML-WS2 spin FET. The operation of a spin FET in the absence of a magnetic field at room temperature is successfully demonstrated.

Carbene-metal complexes as molecular scaffolds for construction of through-space TADF emitters

Through-space charge transfer (CT) process is observed in Cu(I) carbene-metal-amide complexes, where conventional imidazole or imidazoline N-heterocyclic (NHC) carbene fragments act as inert linkers and CT proceeds between a metal-bound carbazole donor and a distantly situated carbene-bound phenylsulfonyl acceptor. The resulting electron transfer gives a rise to efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), characterized with high photoluminescence quantum yields (ΦPL up to 90 %) and radiative rates (kr) up to 3.32×105 s-1. TADF process is aided by fast reverse intersystem crossing (rISC) rates of up to 2.56×107 s-1. Such emitters can be considered as hybrids of two existing TADF emitter design strategies, combining low singlet-triplet energy gaps (ΔEST) met in all-organic exciplex-like emitters (0.0062−0.0075 eV) and small, but non-negligible spin-orbital coupling (SOC) provided by Cu atom, like in TADF-active organometallic complexes.