Sergio Montoya

Tailoring magnetic energies to form dipole skyrmions and skyrmion lattices

Author(s): Montoya, SA; Couture, S; Chess, JJ; Lee, JCT; Kent, N; Henze, D; Sinha, SK; Im, MY; Kevan, SD; Fischer, P; McMorran, BJ; Lomakin, V; Roy, S; Fullerton, EE | Abstract:

Synthesizing skyrmion bound pairs in Fe-Gd thin films

We show that properly engineered amorphous Fe-Gd alloy thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy exhibit bound pairs of like-polarity, opposite helicity skyrmions at room temperature. Magnetic mirror symmetry planes present in the stripe phase, instead of chiral exchange, determine the internal skyrmion structure and the net achirality of the skyrmion phase. Our study shows that stripe domain engineering in amorphous alloy thin films may enable the creation of skyrmion phases with technologically desirable properties.

Luminescent hyperbolic metasurfaces

When engineered on scales much smaller than the operating wavelength, metal-semiconductor nanostructures exhibit properties unobtainable in nature. Namely, a uniaxial optical metamaterial described by a hyperbolic dispersion relation can simultaneously behave as a reflective metal and an absorptive or emissive semiconductor for electromagnetic waves with orthogonal linear polarization states. Using an unconventional multilayer architecture, we demonstrate luminescent hyperbolic metasurfaces, wherein distributed semiconducting quantum wells display extreme absorption and emission polarization anisotropy. Through normally incident micro-photoluminescence measurements, we observe absorption anisotropies greater than a factor of 10 and degree-of-linear polarization of emission >0.9. We observe the modification of emission spectra and, by incorporating wavelength-scale gratings, show a controlled reduction of polarization anisotropy. We verify hyperbolic dispersion with numerical simulations that model the metasurface as a composite nanoscale structure and according to the effective medium approximation. Finally, we experimentally demonstrate >350% emission intensity enhancement relative to the bare semiconducting quantum wells.

Nanosecond X-Ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy on Magnetic Skyrmions.

We report an x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy method that exploits the recent development of the two-pulse mode at the Linac Coherent Light Source. By using coherent resonant x-ray magnetic scattering, we studied spontaneous fluctuations on nanosecond time scales in thin films of multilayered Fe/Gd that exhibit ordered stripe and Skyrmion lattice phases. The correlation time of the fluctuations was found to differ between the Skyrmion phase and near the stripe-Skyrmion boundary. This technique will enable a significant new area of research on the study of equilibrium fluctuations in condensed matter.

Streamlined approach to mapping the magnetic induction of skyrmionic materials

Recently, Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (LTEM) has helped researchers advance the emerging field of magnetic skyrmions. These magnetic quasi-particles, composed of topologically non-trivial magnetization textures, have a large potential for application as information carriers in low-power memory and logic devices. LTEM is one of a very few techniques for direct, real-space imaging of magnetic features at the nanoscale. For Fresnel-contrast LTEM, the transport of intensity equation (TIE) is the tool of choice for quantitative reconstruction of the local magnetic induction through the sample thickness. Typically, this analysis requires collection of at least three images. Here, we show that for uniform, thin, magnetic films, which includes many skyrmionic samples, the magnetic induction can be quantitatively determined from a single defocused image using a simplified TIE approach.

Resonant properties of dipole skyrmions in amorphous Fe/Gd multilayers

Author(s): Montoya, SA; Couture, S; Chess, JJ; Lee, JCT; Kent, N; Im, MY; Kevan, SD; Fischer, P; McMorran, BJ; Roy, S; Lomakin, V; Fullerton, EE | Abstract:

Electronic Metamaterials with Tunable Second-order Optical Nonlinearities

The ability to engineer metamaterials with tunable nonlinear optical properties is crucial for nonlinear optics. Traditionally, metals have been employed to enhance nonlinear optical interactions through field localization. Here, inspired by the electronic properties of materials, we introduce and demonstrate experimentally an asymmetric metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) metamaterial that exhibits a large and electronically tunable effective second-order optical susceptibility (χ(2)). The induced χ(2) originates from the interaction between the third-order optical susceptibility of the semiconductor (χ(3)) with the engineered internal electric field resulting from the two metals possessing dissimilar work function at its interfaces. We demonstrate a five times larger second-harmonic intensity from the MSM metamaterial, compared to contributions from its constituents with electrically tunable nonlinear coefficient ranging from 2.8 to 15.6 pm/V. Spatial patterning of one of the metals on the semiconductor demonstrates tunable nonlinear diffraction, paving the way for all-optical spatial signal processing with space-invariant and -variant nonlinear impulse response.

Synthesis of second-order nonlinearities in dielectric-semiconductor-dielectric metamaterials

We demonstrate a large effective second-order nonlinear optical susceptibility in electronic optical metamaterials based on sputtered dielectric-semiconductor-dielectric multilayers of silicon dioxide/amorphous silicon (a-Si)/aluminum oxide. The interfacial fixed charges (Qf) with opposite signs on either side of dielectric-semiconductor interfaces result in a non-zero built-in electric field within the a-Si layer, which couples to the large third-order nonlinear susceptibility tensor of a-Si and induces an effective second-order nonlinear susceptibility tensor χeff(2). The value of the largest components of the effective χeff(2) tensor, i.e., χ(2)zzz, is determined experimentally to be 2 pm/V for the as-fabricated metamaterials and increases to 8.5 pm/V after the post-thermal annealing process. The constituents and fabrication methods make these metamaterials CMOS compatible, enabling efficient nonlinear devices for chip-scale silicon photonic integrated circuits.

Determination of domain wall chirality using in situ Lorentz transmission electron microscopy

Controlling domain wall chirality is increasingly seen in non-centrosymmetric materials. Mapping chiral magnetic domains requires knowledge about all the vector components of the magnetization, which poses a problem for conventional Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (LTEM) that is only sensitive to magnetic fields perpendicular to the electron beams direction of travel. The standard approach in LTEM for determining the third component of the magnetization is to tilt the sample to some angle and record a second image. This presents a problem for any domain structures that are stabilized by an applied external magnetic field (e.g. skyrmions), because the standard LTEM setup does not allow independent control of the angle of an applied magnetic field, and sample tilt angle. Here we show that applying a modified transport of intensity equation analysis to LTEM images collected during an applied field sweep, we can determine the domain wall chirality of labyrinth domains in a perpendicularly magnetized ...

Practical realization of deeply subwavelength multilayer metal-dielectric nanostructures based on InGaAsP (Presentation Recording)

Using established nanofabrication techniques, we realize deeply subwavelength multilayer metal-dielectric nanostructures composed of silver and indium gallium arsenide phosphide (InGaAsP). In contrast to most, if not all, subwavelength multilayer metal-dielectric systems to date, the Bloch vector of the fabricated structure is parallel to the plane of the substrate, making it suitable for waveguide integration. InGaAsP multiple quantum wells (MQWs) are epitaxially grown on InP normal to the Bloch vector of the resulting multilayer. The associated carrier population of the MQWs allows for active control of the behavior of the nanostructure via external optical pumping. Individual layer thicknesses of 30nm are repeatedly achieved via electron-beam lithography, reactive ion etching of InGaAsP, and sputter deposition of silver. Resulting 60nm periods of the one-dimensional periodic structure are 25 times smaller than telecommunication wavelengths in vacuum. The realized multilayer nanostructures hold promise as a platform for active and tunable hyperbolic metamaterials at telecommunication frequencies.