The optical tweezer of skyrmions

Abstract

In a spin-driven multiferroic system, the magnetoelectric coupling has the form of effective dynamical Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya (DM) interaction. Experimentally, it is confirmed, for instance, for Cu2OSeO3, that the DM interaction has an essential role in the formation of skyrmions, which are topologically protected magnetic structures. Those skyrmions are very robust and can be manipulated through an electric field. The external electric field couples to the spin-driven ferroelectric polarization and the skyrmionic magnetic texture emerged due to the DM interaction. In this work, we demonstrate the effect of optical tweezing. For a particular configuration of the external electric fields it is possible to trap or release the skyrmions in a highly controlled manner. The functionality of the proposed tweezer is visualized by micromagnetic simulations and model analysis.