Tuning skyrmion Hall effect via engineering of spin-orbit interaction

Full text: We demonstrate that the Magnus force acting on magnetic skyrmions can be efficiently tuned via modulation of the strength of spin-orbit interaction [1]. We show that the skyrmion Hall effect [2], which is a direct consequence of the non-vanishing Magnus force on the magnetic structure can be suppressed in certain limits. Our calculations show that the emergent magnetic fields in the presence of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) renormalize the Lorentz force on itinerant electrons and thus influence the topological transport. In particular, we show that for a Neel-type skyrmion and Bloch-type antiskyrmion, the skyrmion Hall effect (SkHE) can vanish by tuning appropriately the strength of Rashba and Dresselhaus SOCs, respectively. Our results open up alternative directions to explore in a bid to overcome the parasitic and undesirable SkHE for spintronic applications. (author)