Acoustic Tweezers for Magnetic Skyrmions

Abstract

Current methods for driving magnetic skyrmions predominantly translate ensembles as a whole, lacking single-particle selectivity. Here, we propose an "acoustic tweezer" that deterministically traps and routes individual skyrmions using spatially extended acoustic beams. We reveal that spatially confined longitudinal waves carry nontrivial phonon spin, inducing a magnetoelastic field whose chirality is locked to the acoustic spin texture. This generates polarity-selective radiation forces, distinct from conservative gradient forces, that attract skyrmions to local phonon spin maxima. Intersecting orthogonal beams create reconfigurable attractive points for adiabatic, deterministic manipulation. Our global-field-local-interaction paradigm establishes a non-destructive, on-chip route for high-precision topological spintronics.