Magnetic tunnel junctions: An efficient way for electrical skyrmion detection investigated by ab initio theory

In our proof-of-principle study we examine the influence of skyrmions on magnetoresistive transport. In particular, we show that magnetic tunnel junctions are a technologically appealing and promising way for electrical detection of noncollinear magnetic structures. The calculated effect is shown to originate from scattering between different k states and cannot be identified through densities of states alone. Our results suggest that the detection efficiency strongly depends on the utilized materials.