Spin Texture Probed with Magnetoresistance in Ferromagnetic EuO_1-x Thin Films

At present significant research effort is being placed in the study of topological particle-like magnetic skyrmions for electronic and spintronic applications. We have prepared thin films of EuO_1-x on Si (001) substrate by pulsed laser deposition using europium (Eu) metal as a target in order to examine its spin-dependent transport. We present the angular dependence of magnetoresistance in EuO_1-x thin films. We found that at low temperature below 30 K, ΔR^out = R(B_{x or y}) – R(B_z) is maximum at 1 T, between 30K to 70K it is maximum at 2 T and at 90K it is maximum at 3T. And, it decreases with increasing applied field. Whereas, at high temperature above 90 K, ΔR^out increases as the field is increased. And field in-plane ΔRⁱⁿ = R(B_x) – R(B_y) is almost zero. This could be because of the topological phase and its density variation present in EuO_1-x below the transition temperature and suggest a two dimensional spin-texture. The magnetic anisotropy is also enhanced for the transport measurements, and is much larger than that obtained from magnetic measurements, which may result from strong spin-orbit coupling in EuO_1-x and the presence of the spin texture.