Skyrmion Coupling Modulated by Spatially Varying Magnetic Anisotropy

Magnetic skyrmions are topological spin textures that have been considered for next generation memory and computing architectures. A current area of interest is the study of skyrmion resonances and how the resonance frequencies of a skyrmion or skyrmions can be affected by external stimuli. Using micromagnetic simulations, we present a method of modulating the coupling between a pair of skyrmions by changing the magnetic anisotropy constant experienced by only one of the skyrmions. This simulation choice has a basis in recent efforts to use electric fields or magneto-ionic phenomena to control locally the anisotropy of thin films. We show how the coupling between the skyrmions depends on the relative difference of the anisotropy constants between the two skyrmion regions, such that the synchronization of the dynamics between the skyrmions can change. This demonstrated effect could be used for novel neuromorphic computing architectures and sensing techniques, where synchronization patterns of magnetic oscillators have already been explored for classification tasks.