Skyrmion lifetime in ultrathin films

Abstract

We show that thermal stability of skyrmions due to entropic effects can be strongly affected by external control parameters such as magnetic field and interface composition. The lifetimes of isolated skyrmions in atomic Pd/Fe bilayers on Ir(111) and on Rh(111) are calculated in the framework of harmonic transition state theory based on an atomistic spin model parametrized from density functional theory. Depending on the system the attempt frequency for skyrmion collapse can change by up to nine orders of magnitude with the strength of the applied magnetic field. We demonstrate that this effect is due to a drastic change of entropy with skyrmion radius which opens a route toward stabilizing sub-10-nm skyrmions at room temperature.