Fig. 3. Skyrmion creation.

MFM images at E = +0 kV/cm (a), −4 kV/cm (b), −0 kV/cm (c), and +4 kV/cm (d) with B_bias = 60 mT. Corresponding simulation results of strain-mediated skyrmion creation with ${\epsilon }_{\left[110\right]}={\epsilon }_{\left[-110\right]}=0$ (initial state) and D = 0.772 mJ/m² (e), ${\epsilon }_{\left[110\right]}={\epsilon }_{\left[-110\right]}=-0.189\%$ and D = 0.585 mJ/m² (f), ${\epsilon }_{\left[110\right]}={\epsilon }_{\left[-110\right]}=-0.034\%$ and D = 0.685 mJ/m² (g), and ${\epsilon }_{\left[110\right]}={\epsilon }_{\left[-110\right]}=-0.010\%$ and D =  0.727 mJ/m² (h), with the blue and red contrasts corresponding to magnetizations pointing up and down, respectively. The scale bar is 1 μm. Evolutions of in-plane biaxial compressive strain ${\epsilon }_{\mathrm{in-plane}}={\epsilon }_{\left[110\right]}={\epsilon }_{\left[-110\right]}$ (i), magnetoelastic energy density f_mel (j), and intrinsic energy density f_intrin (k). The time stages are t₀ (E = +0 kV/cm), t₁ (E = −4 kV/cm), t₂ (E = −0 kV/cm), and t₃ (E = + 4 kV/cm), respectively. The insets of k are the corresponding individual skyrmion evolutions with a scale bar of 50 nm.