Figure 2. Electrical generation of magnetic skyrmions.

(a) Schematic of the electric connection for current pulse-injection experiments. The X-ray beam is injected at the frequency of 3.33 MHz (bunch spacing=300 ns) and can be synchronized with current pulses to observe temporal evolution of magnetic textures. A source metre is connected through a bias-tee to simultaneously measure the device resistance. The SEM image of the actual device is also shown. Scale bar, 5 μm. (b) SEM image shows two distinct areas in a magnetic wire, (i) and (ii), where the magnetic textures were separately measured. MTXM images of the magnetic domain states in (c), region (i), and (d), region (ii), showing the transformation of domain phase from labyrinth state to multiple skyrmionic state after the application of bipolar pulses at B_z=0 mT. Enclosed bipolar pulse trains are injected at f=3.33 MHz for 5 s. Images are taken before and after the current pulses.