Anomalous skyrmion drag in magnetic multilayers

Abstract Magnetic skyrmion, one of the intriguing topological textures in magnetic materials, exhibits various excellent properties for fundamental research and realistic application. The particle-like nature of skyrmion also offers a suitable platform to study many-body effect, which is however largely unexplored. In the present work, we demonstrate interlayer skyrmion drag in partially driven magnetic multilayers through micromagnetic simulations. While a small driving current leads to a conventional drag with passive skyrmion motion following the active skyrmions, a large current is found to give rise to an anomalous drag with distinct dynamics of passive and active skyrmions. The emergence and explicit behaviors of these features are well interpreted by the specific interlayer attractive interaction between the skyrmions through long-range dipolar fields. Our results reveal the skyrmion drag dynamics in magnetic multilayers and disclose the physics behind, which should be useful for designing skyrmion-based devices.