ArXiv · 2025
Magnetic skyrmions hold immense promise for low-power spintronic memory, logic devices, and neuromorphic computing. However, existing optical and electrical manipulation schemes rely predominantly on local thermal excitation, rendering skyrmion nucleation inherently stochastic and lacking a non-destructive mechanism for targeted, on-demand erasure. Here, we demonstrate a deterministic, field-driven paradigm for the ultrafast, all-optical writing and erasing of magnetic skyrmion crystals using a magneto-plasmonic metasurface. By tailoring surface lattice resonances in a periodic nanodisk array, circularly polarized light excites giant super-circular optical spin densities that drive intense circulating drift photocurrents via the inverse Faraday effect, delivering synchronized picosecond magnetic field pulses directly to an adjacent chiral magnetic multilayer. Micromagnetic simulations reveal that a single optical pulse deterministically nucleates stable Neel skyrmions through a transient Bloch to Neel relaxation pathway governed by optical helicity and interfacial Dzyaloshinskii Moriya interaction. Crucially, reversing the incident light helicity allows on-demand reconfiguration of the topological state under a confining bias field, the inverted optomagnetic field unwinds pre-existing skyrmions to restore the uniform ground state, whereas at zero field it deterministically transforms an expanded skyrmion into a stable skyrmionium. By bypassing stochastic thermal cycles and achieving fully reversible topological control on picosecond timescales, this work bridges nanophotonics and magnetism, establishing a scalable foundation for high-speed, reconfigurable topological data storage and unconventional computing architectures.
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