Electrical detection of individual skyrmions in graphene devices

Abstract

We study a graphene Hall probe located on top of a magnetic surface as a detector of skyrmions, using as a working principle the anomalous Hall effect produced by the exchange interaction of the graphene electrons with the noncoplanar magnetization of the skyrmion. We study the magnitude of the effect as a function of the exchange interaction, skyrmion size, and device dimensions. Our calculations for multiterminal graphene nanodevices, working in the ballistic regime, indicate that for realistic exchange interactions a single skyrmion would give Hall voltages well within reach of the experimental state of the art. The proposed device could act as an electrical transducer that marks the presence of a single skyrmion in a nanoscale region, paving the way towards the integration of skyrmion-based spintronics and graphene electronics.