Skyrmions tagged posts

A Possible Game Changer for Next Generation Microelectronics

Multicolor patterns of arrows in pointing across, down. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)
Magnetic fields created by skyrmions in two-dimensional sheet of material composed of iron, germanium and tellurium. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)

Researchers have discovered new properties of tiny magnetic whirlpools called skyrmions. Their pivotal discovery could lead to a new generation of microelectronics for memory storage with vastly improved energy efficiency in high performance computers.

Magnets generate invisible fields that attract certain materials. A common example is fridge magnets. Far more important to our everyday lives, magnets also can store data in computers. Exploiting the direction of the magnetic field (say, up or down), microscopic bar magnets each can store one bit of memory as a zero or a one — the language of computers.

Scientists at the U.S...

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Skyrmions: Fundamental Particles Modeled in Beam of Light

Skyrmion particle modelled in light CREDIT: University of Birmingham

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have succeeded in creating an experimental model of an elusive kind of fundamental particle called a skyrmion in a beam of light.

The breakthrough provides physicists with a real system demonstrating the behavior of skyrmions, first proposed 60 years ago by a University of Birmingham mathematical physicist, Professor Tony Skyrme.

Skyrme’s idea used the structure of spheres in 4-dimensional space to guarantee the indivisible nature of a skyrmion particle in 3 dimensions. 3D particle-like skyrmions are theorized to tell us about the early origins of the Universe, or about the physics of exotic materials or cold atoms...

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Magnetic Vortices as Data Storage Media of the future: Controlled movement of Skyrmions

The magnetic structure of a skyrmion is symmetrical around its core; arrows indicate the direction of spin. Credit: Ill./©: Benjamin Krüger

The magnetic structure of a skyrmion is symmetrical around its core; arrows indicate the direction of spin. Credit: Ill./©: Benjamin Krüger

JGU and MIT joint teams have for the first time achieved targeted shifting of individual skyrmions at room temperature using electrical impulses. The idea is that electronic storage units (bits) will not be stored on rotating hard disks as is currently standard practice but on a nanowire in the form of magnetic vortex structures, ie skyrmions, using a process similar to that of a shift register. The magnetic skyrmion bits would be rapidly accessible, while storage density would be high and there would be improved energy efficiency.

Magnetic skyrmions are special spin configurations that can occur in materials especially in thin layer structures when ...

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Skyrmions, found in Magnetic Systems, now show to also exist in Ferroelectrics

Schematic representation of the structure and dipolar configuration of the vortex state.

Schematic representation of the structure and dipolar configuration of the vortex state. The structure consists of a cylindrical BaTiO3 (BTO) nanowire with a radius R of 2.7 nm (seven lattice constant units) embedded in a SrTiO3 (STO) matrix with lateral sides along the [100] and [010] directions of nx=ny=36 lattice constant units, and a length nz=6 along the [001] pseudocubic direction. (b) Cross-sectional dipolar configuration of the (Vxy|FEz) state characterized by a vortex pattern in the z-planes co-occurring with an electrical polarization along the [001] direction.

Skyrmions are non-coplanar swirling field textures. Ferroelectrics convert changes in mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice versa...

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