Dynamics of antiferromagnetic skyrmion driven by the spin Hall effect

Magnetic skyrmion moved by the spin-Hall effect is promising for the application of the generation racetrack memories. However, the Magnus force causes a deflected motion of skyrmion, which limits its application. Here, we create an antiferromagnetic skyrmion by injecting a spin-polarized pulse in the nanostripe and investigate the spin Hall effect-induced motion of antiferromagnetic skyrmion by micromagnetic simulations. In contrast to ferromagnetic skyrmion, we find that the antiferromagnetic skyrmion has three evident advantages: (i) the minimum driving current density of antiferromagnetic skyrmion is about two orders smaller than the ferromagnetic skyrmion; (ii) the velocity of the antiferromagnetic skyrmion is about 57 times larger than the ferromagnetic skyrmion driven by the same value of current density; (iii) antiferromagnetic skyrmion can be driven by the spin Hall effect without the influence of Magnus force. In addition, antiferromagnetic skyrmion can move around the pinning sites due to its property of topological protection. Our results present the understanding of antiferromagnetic skyrmion motion driven by the spin Hall effect and may also contribute to the development of antiferromagnetic skyrmion-based racetrack memories. Published by AIP Publishing.