A tiny magnetic vortex structures or the so-called skyrmions, have

been researched intensively for some time for future energy-efficient space-
saving data storage devices. Scientists have now discovered another class of
particle-like magnetic object that could take the development of data storage
devices a significant step forward. If skyrmions are used to encode the
number ''1'', then the new objects could be used to encode the number ''0''.

After being theorised its existence in 1982, skyrmions were first

observed experimentally in 2009, in exotic crystals at temperatures close to
absolute zero. Skyrmions are small whirls in the magnetization of magnetic
materials. Also, it is a twist or a knot in an otherwise uniform magnetic field
that creates a region in which align themselves not to the magnetic poles but
rather into whorls. Once arranged into this unique topology they can behave
like particles and are protected from outside forces. Magnetic whirls with a
diameter of only a few nanometers occur in a thin film of palladium and iron.
The resistance, measured with a metallic probe close to the surface
changes inside the skyrmion as compared to its surrounding. The change in
resistance is continuous and becomes strongest, when the canting between
neighboring atomic magnets is largest, in this case in the skyrmion center.

In the meantime, these unique magnetic structures can also be found

on metallic surfaces, as used today in technological applications such as
magnetic sensors or the reading heads of hard drives. In order to use
skyrmions as a storage medium, it must be possible to manufacture the
surfaces or interfaces on a sufficiently large scale, they must contain enough
of the magnetic material, and the magnetic vortex must also occur at room
temperature. The skyrmions have a diameter of less than 100 nanometers.
This corresponds roughly to a thousandth of a hair width. To prepare these
skyrmions, scientists at Mainz University prepared small magnetic discs.

"When we apply a specific external magnetic field, the magnetization in

these discs creates whirls," said Dr. Benjamin Krüger working in the group of
Professor Mathias Kläui at the Institute of Physics at JGU. These skyrmions
were then excited by a magnetic field pulse to trace their motion.
“If you want to create or destroy a skyrmion, that requires you to do something
quite violent to the magnetization,” explains Marrows. “If you store data you
want to be sure that when you comeback and look next week, next year, or in
ten years’ time, that is still there.” Not only skyrmions are secure, they are
also tiny compared to current magnetic storage devices. “They can travel over
huge distances and require very little energy to travel. Skyrmions can pave
the way not only to high-density storage, but also new kinds of devices with
very little energy consumption,” says Dr. Katia Pappas, a professor at the
Delft University in Netherlands.

The mathematical concept of skyrmions was first introduced by high-

energy physicist Tony Skyrme in three-dimensional (3D) space for describing
the stability of hadrons as objects possessing non-trivial topological numbers
in a non-linear sigma model. Later on, the original concept of skyrmions was
generalized to various condensed-matter systems such as Bose–Einstein
condensates, liquid-crystal phases, photonic systems, and quantum Hall
systems exhibiting the quantum Hall effect. Recently, skyrmions have been
realized in magnetic crystals and multilayers lacking inversion symmetry.
Distinct from several topologically protected objects or states such as
quantum Hall states, chiral edge states of topological insulators, massless
Majorana modes, magnetic skyrmions exhibit unique real-space topological
characteristics and are envisioned as one of the most promising information
carriers in consumer low-power spintronic devices.

These objects, which are referred to as "chiral magnetic bobbers," are

three-dimensional magnetic structures that appear near the surfaces of
certain alloys. Magnetic skyrmions were initially identified in non-
centrosymmetric crystals of certain helimagnetic materials, such as MnSi,
FeGe, MnFeGe, FeCoSi, etc., stabilized by chiral interactions between atomic
spins. Later, magnetic skyrmions were also discovered in ultrathin films and
multi-layers, where they are stabilized by interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya
interection (DMI), which is present due to the broken inversion symmetry
combined with strong spin–orbit interaction at the interface.
 Magnetic skyrmions exhibit intriguing and novel phenomena due to their
topologically non-trivial spin textures. One pertinent example is the topological
Hall effect induced by the emergent magnetic field of the skyrmions on
conduction electrons and its reciprocal effect, the skyrmion Hall effect.
Analogous to the charge Hall effect, which describes the transverse deflection
of electric charges due to the Lorentz force, magnetic skyrmions exhibit
curved trajectories away from the direction of applied current as a result of
their spin topology.

Another intensively researched topic about skyrmion fundamental

physics is the interaction between thermally or electrically excited spin waves
(magnons) and skyrmions. In addition to being attractive for fundamental
research, these fascinating spatially localized nano-metric particle-like spin
textures can be driven by very small electric currents, magnetic or electric
field pulses, thus possessing a huge potential for technological applications.
Thanks to their unique spin topology, which allows the skyrmions to avoid
pinning potentials created by structural imperfections, the depinning current
density of magnetic skyrmions in magnetic crystals could be four to five orders
of magnitude smaller than that for driving domain walls in nanowires.
Magnetic skyrmions are thus envisioned as information carriers for future non-
volatile, low power consumption, high-density spintronic memory and logic
computing devices.

Magnetic skyrmions can be created by local magnetic fields, by electric

fields, by electric currents and local heating. By utilizing a geometrical
constriction, mutual conversion between domain walls and skyrmions has
been demonstrated, which lays the foundation for a number of conceptual
skyrmion-based devices for memory and logic applications. To move
skyrmions, one widely discussed method is based on spin-transfer torque or
spin–orbit torque. Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected whirling spin
texture. Their nanoscale dimensions, topologically protected stability and
solitonic nature, together are promising for future spintronics applications.
 "For a long time, the unique object for research in the field of chiral
magnets was the magnetic skyrmion. We now provide a new object for
investigation by researchers, “a chiral bobber”, which is characterized by a
number of unique properties," says Dr. Nikolai Kiselev from Jülich's Peter
Grünberg Institute. Three years ago, together with the institute's Director Prof.
Stefan Blügel and other collaborators, they predicted the existence of this new
class of magnetic structures theoretically. Now, researchers from the Ernst
Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons have
succeeded in demonstrating the existence of chiral bobbers in a real material
experimentally. Chiral magnetic skyrmions are nanoscale vortex-like spin
textures that form in the presence of an applied magnetic field in ferromagnets
that support the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interection (DMI) because of strong
spin-orbit coupling and broken inversion symmetry of the crystal. In sharp
contrast to other systems that allows for the two-dimensional (2D) skyrmions,
in chiral magnets the presence of the DMI commonly prevents the stability
and coexistence of topological excitations of different types.

The stability of magnetic structures such as skyrmions is related to a

property of the material known as chirality. Chirality is commonly found in
nature, and is characterized by a reflection asymmetry. A simple example
being that our left hand is the mirror opposite of our right. When this appears
in the structure of atoms in a solid, it affects the way that the magnetic
moments of unpaired electrons organize themselves through the relativistic
spin-orbit Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. This interaction is usually
weak; nevertheless, it induces qualitatively different behaviour. In chiral
magnets, such as MnSi, the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction stabilises non-
collinear arrangements of the magnetic moments and emergent phenomena
like the topologically protected magnetic defects called skyrmions. The latter
are in the focus of theoretical and experimental studies because their small
size, stability and emergent electromagnetism make them ideal candidates for
spintronics applications.
 Just as a right hand cannot be converted into a left hand for reasons of
symmetry, right-handed and left-handed magnetic structures cannot be
converted into one another. Furthermore, both skyrmions and the newly-
discovered chiral bobbers are very small, with diameters of typically only a
few tens of nanometers. Therefore, they can in principle be used to pack data
very densely on a memory chip. However, their small size makes their
observation highly challenging. "The visualization of magnetic texture on such
a small scale requires special state-of-the-art techniques that are accessible
in only a few laboratories worldwide," explains Rafal Dunin-Borkowski.

There is another important reason why magnetic solitons (another

name for particle-like objects in nonlinear physics) such as skyrmions and
chiral bobbers are so promising for applications. In contrast to data bits in
hard disk drives, skyrmions are movable objects. Their motion along a guiding
track in a chip can be induced by a very weak pulse of electrical current. This
property provides new opportunities for the development of a completely new
concept of magnetic solid-state memory -- the so-called skyrmion racetrack
memory. "The mobility of skyrmions allows data to move from write to read
elements without the need for any movable mechanical parts such as read
and write heads and spining hard disk itself," explains Nikolai Kiselev. This
capability saves energy because components that move generally require
more energy, occupy more space and tend to be sensitive to mechanical
vibrations and shocks. A new solid state magnetic memory would be free of
such disadvantages.

The newly discovered magnetic particles now make it possible to

encode digital data directly with two different types of magnetic objects,
namely with skyrmions and magnetic bobbers.

"Until now, it was assumed that digital data should somehow be

represented as a sequence of skyrmions and empty spaces," says Stefan
Blügel. The distance between successive skyrmions then encodes binary
information. However, it must then be controlled or quantized, so that no
information is lost through spontaneous drift of the skyrmions. Instead, the
newly discovered three-dimensional magnetic particles offer opportunities to
encode digital data directly as a sequence of skyrmions and magnetic
bobbers, which can each flow freely without needing to maintain precise
distances between successive data bit carriers.

Further research is required to develop practical applications. In the

iron-germanium alloy studied by Nikolai Kiselev and his colleagues, the
structures are only stable up to 200 Kelvin, which corresponds to -73.5
degrees Celsius. However, based on theoretical considerations, it is predicted
that magnetic bobbers may also occur in other chiral magnets and, like some
recently discovered species of skyrmions, may also exist at room
temperature.
Magnetic Skyrmions: New type
of Magnetic Particle-like Object
for Data Storage Devices of
the Future

Synthesis Paper

Submitted to: Mr. Alfie Ando

Submitted by: Joyce Ann C. Bereber

STEM 12 – Feynman
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