Nature Materials

, volume 20 , issue 1 , pages 30-37

Observation of fluctuation-mediated picosecond nucleation of a topological phase

Felix Büttner ^{1, 2}

Bastian Pfau ³

Marie Böttcher ⁴

Michael Schneider ³

Giuseppe Mercurio ⁵

Christian M. Günther ^{6, 7}

Piet Hessing ³

Christopher Klose ³

A. Wittmann ¹

Kathinka Gerlinger ³

Lisa Marie Kern ³

Christian Strüber ³

Clemens von Korff Schmising ³

Josefin Fuchs ³

D Engel ³

Alexandra Churikova ¹

Siying Huang ¹

Daniel Suzuki ¹

Ivan Lemesh ¹

Mantao Huang ¹

Lucas Caretta ¹

David Weder ³

John H. Gaida ⁸

Marcel Möller ⁸

Tyler R. Harvey ⁸

Sergey Zayko ⁸

Kai Bagschik ⁹

Robert Carley ⁵

Laurent Mercadier ⁵

Justine Schlappa ⁵

A. Yaroslavtsev ⁵

Loïc Le Guyarder ⁵

Natalia Gerasimova ⁵

Andreas Scherz ⁵

Carsten Deiter ⁵

Rafael Gort ⁵

David Hickin ⁵

Jun Zhu ⁵

Monica Turcato ⁵

David Lomidze ⁵

Florian Erdinger ¹⁰

Andrea Castoldi ^{11, 12}

Stefano Maffessanti ⁹

Matteo Porro ⁵

Andrey Samartsev ⁵

JAIRO SINOVA ⁴

Claus Ropers ⁸

Johan H. Mentink ¹³

Bertrand Dupé ^{4, 14}

Geoffrey Beach ¹

Stefan Eisebitt ^{3, 7}

Hide authors affiliations Show authors affiliations: 14 affiliations

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA |

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Berlin, Germany |

Max-Born-Institut, Berlin, Germany |

⁴

Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany |

⁵

European XFEL, Schenefeld, Germany |

⁶

Zentraleinrichtung Elektronenmikroskopie (ZELMI), Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany |

⁷

Institut Für Optik Und Atomare Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany |

⁸

4th Physical Institute, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany |

⁹

Deutsches elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg, Germany |

¹⁰

Institute of Computer Engineering, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany |

¹¹

Dipartimento Di Elettronica, Informazione E Bioingegneria, Politecnico Di Milano, Milano, Italy |

¹²

Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, sezione di Milano, Milano, Italy |

¹³

Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands |

¹⁴

Nanomat/Q-mat/CESAM, Université de Liège, Belgium and Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), Bruxelles, Belgium |

Publication type: Journal Article

Publication date: 2020-10-05

Springer Nature

Nature Materials

scimago Q1

wos Q1

SJR: 14.204

CiteScore: 61.8

Impact factor: 38.5

ISSN: 14761122, 14764660

DOI: 10.1038/s41563-020-00807-1

Copy DOI

PubMed ID: 33020615

General Chemistry

Condensed Matter Physics

General Materials Science

Mechanical Engineering

Mechanics of Materials

Abstract

Topological states of matter exhibit fascinating physics combined with an intrinsic stability. A key challenge is the fast creation of topological phases, which requires massive reorientation of charge or spin degrees of freedom. Here we report the picosecond emergence of an extended topological phase that comprises many magnetic skyrmions. The nucleation of this phase, followed in real time via single-shot soft X-ray scattering after infrared laser excitation, is mediated by a transient topological fluctuation state. This state is enabled by the presence of a time-reversal symmetry-breaking perpendicular magnetic field and exists for less than 300 ps. Atomistic simulations indicate that the fluctuation state largely reduces the topological energy barrier and thereby enables the observed rapid and homogeneous nucleation of the skyrmion phase. These observations provide fundamental insights into the nature of topological phase transitions, and suggest a path towards ultrafast topological switching in a wide variety of materials through intermediate fluctuating states. Time-resolved X-ray scattering is utilized to demonstrate an ultrafast 300 ps topological phase transition to a skyrmionic phase. This transition is enabled by the formation of a transient topological fluctuation state.

Found

3 citations

Blügel Stefan

656 publications, 36 799 citations, 2 reviews

h-index: 91

Forschungszentrum Jülich

1 citation

Sadovnikov Alexandr

🥼 🤝

PhD in Physics and Mathematics, associate professor

125 publications, 3 282 citations, 102 reviews

h-index: 28

Saratov State University

Far Eastern Federal University

Research interests

Spin waves

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Büttner F. et al. Observation of fluctuation-mediated picosecond nucleation of a topological phase // Nature Materials. 2020. Vol. 20. No. 1. pp. 30-37.

GOST all authors (up to 50) Copy

Büttner F. et al. Observation of fluctuation-mediated picosecond nucleation of a topological phase // Nature Materials. 2020. Vol. 20. No. 1. pp. 30-37.

RIS |

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RIS Copy

TY - JOUR

DO - 10.1038/s41563-020-00807-1

UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-00807-1

TI - Observation of fluctuation-mediated picosecond nucleation of a topological phase

T2 - Nature Materials

AU - Büttner, Felix

AU - Pfau, Bastian

AU - Böttcher, Marie

AU - Schneider, Michael

AU - Mercurio, Giuseppe

AU - Günther, Christian M.

AU - Hessing, Piet

AU - Klose, Christopher

AU - Wittmann, A.

AU - Gerlinger, Kathinka

AU - Kern, Lisa Marie

AU - Strüber, Christian

AU - von Korff Schmising, Clemens

AU - Fuchs, Josefin

AU - Engel, D

AU - Churikova, Alexandra

AU - Huang, Siying

AU - Suzuki, Daniel

AU - Lemesh, Ivan

AU - Huang, Mantao

AU - Caretta, Lucas

AU - Weder, David

AU - Gaida, John H.

AU - Möller, Marcel

AU - Harvey, Tyler R.

AU - Zayko, Sergey

AU - Bagschik, Kai

AU - Carley, Robert

AU - Mercadier, Laurent

AU - Schlappa, Justine

AU - Yaroslavtsev, A.

AU - Le Guyarder, Loïc

AU - Gerasimova, Natalia

AU - Scherz, Andreas

AU - Deiter, Carsten

AU - Gort, Rafael

AU - Hickin, David

AU - Zhu, Jun

AU - Turcato, Monica

AU - Lomidze, David

AU - Erdinger, Florian

AU - Castoldi, Andrea

AU - Maffessanti, Stefano

AU - Porro, Matteo

AU - Samartsev, Andrey

AU - SINOVA, JAIRO

AU - Ropers, Claus

AU - Mentink, Johan H.

AU - Dupé, Bertrand

AU - Beach, Geoffrey

AU - Eisebitt, Stefan

PY - 2020

DA - 2020/10/05

PB - Springer Nature

SP - 30-37

IS - 1

VL - 20

PMID - 33020615

SN - 1476-1122

SN - 1476-4660

ER -

BibTex |

Cite this

BibTex (up to 50 authors) Copy

@article{2020_Büttner,

author = {Felix Büttner and Bastian Pfau and Marie Böttcher and Michael Schneider and Giuseppe Mercurio and Christian M. Günther and Piet Hessing and Christopher Klose and A. Wittmann and Kathinka Gerlinger and Lisa Marie Kern and Christian Strüber and Clemens von Korff Schmising and Josefin Fuchs and D Engel and Alexandra Churikova and Siying Huang and Daniel Suzuki and Ivan Lemesh and Mantao Huang and Lucas Caretta and David Weder and John H. Gaida and Marcel Möller and Tyler R. Harvey and Sergey Zayko and Kai Bagschik and Robert Carley and Laurent Mercadier and Justine Schlappa and A. Yaroslavtsev and Loïc Le Guyarder and Natalia Gerasimova and Andreas Scherz and Carsten Deiter and Rafael Gort and David Hickin and Jun Zhu and Monica Turcato and David Lomidze and Florian Erdinger and Andrea Castoldi and Stefano Maffessanti and Matteo Porro and Andrey Samartsev and JAIRO SINOVA and Claus Ropers and Johan H. Mentink and Bertrand Dupé and Geoffrey Beach and others},

title = {Observation of fluctuation-mediated picosecond nucleation of a topological phase},

journal = {Nature Materials},

year = {2020},

volume = {20},

publisher = {Springer Nature},

month = {oct},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-00807-1},

number = {1},

pages = {30--37},

doi = {10.1038/s41563-020-00807-1}

}

MLA

Cite this

MLA Copy

Büttner, Felix, et al. “Observation of fluctuation-mediated picosecond nucleation of a topological phase.” Nature Materials, vol. 20, no. 1, Oct. 2020, pp. 30-37. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-00807-1.

Publisher

Springer Nature

Journal

Nature Materials

scimago Q1

wos Q1

SJR

14.204

CiteScore

61.8

Impact factor

38.5

ISSN

14761122 (Print)

14764660 (Electronic)