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Ochoa, Hector

Publications and source records attributed to Ochoa, Hector.

Quantum skyrmionics

Skyrmions are topological solitons that emerge in many physical contexts. In magnetism, they appear as textures of the spin-density field stabilized by different competing interactions and characterized by a topological charge that counts the number of times the order parameter wraps the sphere. They behave as classical objects when the spin texture varies slowly on the scale of the microscopic lattice of the magnet. However, the fast development of experimental tools to create and stabilize skyrmions in thin magnetic films has led to a rich variety of textures, sometimes of atomistic sizes. In this paper, we discuss, in a pedagogical manner, how to introduce quantum interference in the translational dynamics of skyrmion textures, starting from the micromagnetic equations of motion for a classical soliton. We study how the nontrivial topology of the spin texture manifests in the semiclassical regime, when the microscopic lattice potential is treated quantum-mechanically, but the external driving forces are taken as smooth classical perturbations. We highlight close relations to the fields of noncommutative quantum mechanics, Chern–Simons theories, and the quantum Hall effect.

Physics↗

Chiral charge pumping in graphene deposited on a magnetic insulator

Here, we demonstrate experimentally that a sizable chiral charge pumping can be achieved at room temperature in graphene/yttrium iron garnet (YIG) bilayer systems. The effect, which cannot be attributed to the ordinary spin pumping, reveals itself in the creation of a dc electric field/voltage in graphene as a response to the dynamic magnetic excitations (spin waves) in an adjacent out-of-plane magnetized YIG film. We show that the induced voltage changes its sign when the orientation of the static magnetization is reversed, clearly indicating the broken mirror reflection symmetry about the planes normal to the graphene/YIG interface. The strength of effect shows a nonmonotonous dependence on the spin-wave frequency, in agreement with the proposed theoretical model.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗