Manipulation of skyrmions in nanodisks with a current pulse and skyrmion rectifier

A skyrmion in a nanosized disk of a chiral magnet can be used as a bit of information. To this end, it is desirable to control the creation and removal of a skyrmion only by currents without using external magnetic fields. Here, we propose to create a skyrmion by applying a current pulse to a nanodisk. The skyrmion can be removed from the disk by applying a dc current. We show that the dynamics of the created skyrmion can lead to a rectification effect, in which a dc voltage is generated by the motion of skyrmion in the presence of an ac current. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.