Skyrmions tagged posts

Conceptual representations of magnetic phases in MnSi and the experimental set-up.

RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science may be about to wind back time. Skyrmions have been widely touted as providing the basis for new high-density memory devices because of their small size and relative stability. However, it has proven difficult to create, delete, and move them, and skyrmion-based devices are not yet competitive with other high-tech devices based on spin.

The group set out to work using a specially designed stress probe that could apply mechanical stress to the surface of manganese-silicide, a “chiral magnetic” that is known to host skyrmions, cooled to very low temperature...

This brings skyrmions a step closer to use in real-world data storage as well as other novel magnetic and electronic technologies, ie the basis for a new type of computer memory that never loses its grip on the data it stores. Until just recently, magnetic skyrmions had only been seen at very low temperatures and under powerful magnetic fields.

The magnetic force in each individual atom in a magnet ie “magnetic moments” all line up the same way. But under extreme conditions, certain magnetic materials (such as MnSi or FeCoSi) can, instead, develop spots where the moments curve and twist, forming a winding, ring-like configuration...

This discovery opens up a new class of materials for scientists working on ‘skyrmionics,’ which aims to build memory and logic devices based on skyrmions (tiny magnetic vortices). The field of skyrmionics has developed rapidly over the last few years. The very small (around 10 nm) magnetic vortices could provide a new way to build memory and logical devices with a very low energy use. ‘In fact, a computer memory system based on magnetic bubbles, which are basically very large skyrmions, was invented in the 1967 at Bell Labs’, explains Maxim Mostovoy, Associate Prof of Theoretical Physics at the University of Groningen...