  The growing market and massive use of Internet of Things nodes is placing
unprecedented demands of energy efficient hardware for edge computing and
microwave devices. In particular, magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs), as main
building blocks of spintronic microwave technology, can offer a path for the
development of compact and high-performance microwave detectors. On the other
hand, the fascinating field of skyrmionics is bridging together concepts from
topology and spintronics. Here, we show the proof of concept of a topological
spin-torque diode realized with an MTJ on top of a skyrmionic material at room
temperature and for a wide region of applied fields, including the zero-field
case. Our spin torque diode electrical measurements show the electrical
excitation of a skyrmion resonant mode with frequencies near 4 GHz and a
selectivity one order of magnitude smaller than the uniform modes excited in
the same device. Micromagnetic simulations identify these dynamics with the
excitation of the breathing mode and point out the role of thickness dependent
magnetic parameters (magnetic anisotropy field and Dzyaloshinkii Moriya
interaction) in both stabilizing and exciting the magnetic skyrmions. This work
marks a milestone for the development of topological spin-torque diodes.
