magnetic skyrmions tagged posts

Research at Lund University in Sweden has found a new way to create nano-sized magnetic particles using ultrafast laser light pulses. The discovery could pave the way for new and more energy-efficient technical components and become useful in the quantum computers of the future.

Magnetic skyrmions are sometimes described as magnetic vortices. Unlike ferromagnetic states — which occur in conventional magnets such as compasses and refrigerator magnets — the skyrmion state is quite peculiar: the orientation of the magnetization does not point in the same direction everywhere in the material, but is instead best described as a kind of swirling magnetism.

Skyrmions are of great interest to both basic researchand industry, as they can be used to manufactu...

The first ever observations of polar vortices in a ferroelectic material could find potential applications in ultracompact data storage and processing and the production of new states of matter. Credit: Berkeley Lab

New state of matter holds promise for ultracompact data storage, processing. The observation in a ferroelectric material of “polar vortices” that appear to be the electrical cousins of magnetic skyrmions holds intriguing possibilities for advanced electronic devices. These polar vortices, which were theoretically predicted more than a decade ago, could also “rewrite our basic understanding of ferroelectrics”.

“It has long been thought that rotating topological structures are confined to magnetic systems and aren’t possible in ferroelectric materials, but through the creation of...