Novel perspectives for the control of antiferromagnetic solitons

Magnetic solitons have been object of an intense study in recent years due to their topological robustness and potential use as building blocks for logic devices and information storage. Antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials appear to be perfect platforms for their manipulation, since they do not produce stray fields and typically exhibit ultrafast spin dynamics. However, the Néel order is largely hidden from magnetic fields and, therefore, AFM solitons are difficult to drive by conventional magnetic techniques. In this talk we will discuss novel approaches to the stabilization and control of AFM solitons (in particular, domain walls and skyrmions) in thin films based on the magnetoelectric effect and on fieldlike torques at the bulk level. In the first case, we will show that domain walls and skyrmions behave as massive particles moving in a viscous medium subjected to a gyrotropic force, and that the film thickness can be used as a control parameter for their motion. In the second case, we will show that the skyrmion crystal phase can arise as the ground Néel state and that its dynamics can be triggered via spin-transfer effects.