Stabilizing skyrmions in stepped magnetic devices for multistate memory

The dynamics and stability of magnetic skyrmions within a nano-track with multiple confinements are investigated. Firstly, the motion of a single skyrmion under spin transfer torque (STT) is studied. By accurately adjusting the current pulse magnitude and width, the study reveals the possibility to pin and stabilize the skyrmion in each confinement. Due to the Hall angle, the depining of the skyrmion from the top confinement requires two pulses with adjustable time delay while a single pulse is enough to depin it for the case of bottom confinement. In the case of two skyrmions, once one is pinned in one confinement, the second one stabilizes in the nearest available empty state and no more than one skyrmion could be seen in single confinement. Finally and for further confirmation of this behavior, the motion of a large number of skyrmions is investigated under the same conditions. The results show that a multistate device could be obtained with still the existence of only one skyrmion per state. The skyrmions could be displaced along the nano-track until their annihilation at the end of the device.