Fabricating in-situ Lorentz TEM Holder MEMS Chip for Observation of Skyrmion Dynamics

Abstract

Magnetic skyrmions move fast under a condition of small current with protected topological property, so studying skyrmion dynamics is important for the spin-based devices. For this study, Lorentz transmission electron microscope (LTEM) is a powerful tool with a high resolution. Importantly, this enables us to analyze magnetization direction of skyrmions by using a transport-of-intensity equation (TIE) method. Also, we can study skyrmion dynamics using an in-situ TEM holder with MEMS-based chip. However, there was a problem when using a commercial chip because of stress on a multilayer. Here, we fabricated a MEMS chip with a bar-type multilayer for an in-situ TEM holder to study skyrmion dynamics using LTEM. Our home-made MEMS chip solves the problem of stress on the multilayer. Furthermore, this can be applied to other materials with various geometry, so we can apply this MEMS chip to other extensive researches.