The magnetic bubble domains in iron garnet films, the time-honored objects of micromagnetism, have recently come into focus due to their similarity to skyrmions. It has been known for decades that the bubble domains can be induced by an external magnetic field. However, this method cannot control the number of nucleated domains and their position. Furthermore, magnetic field control relying on bulky inductive elements does not match the requirements of modern microelectronics.

In this paper the local technique for magnetic domains generation is proposed: the site of bubble domain “blowing” is determined by the contact point with the sharp tip where the strain gradient is maximum, while the size of the domain can be tuned by voltage application between the tip and sample substrate. The possibility of the combined electro-mechanical control of noncollinear spin textures is interesting in the context of straintronics and spintronics.

From the fundamental point of view this result serves as an illustration of a profound analogy between the symmetry of chiral spin structures and flexural deformation in crystals. 

A.P.Pyatakov et al.,
JETP Letters 122, issue 3 (2025)