Communications of the ACM
Magnetic Skyrmions at Room Temperature: New Digital Memory?
Skyrmions are stable magnetic structures and could be a new way to store data at low energy cost.
Credit: Dustin Gilbert and Kai Liu/UC Davis
Researchers at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) and the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology have succeeded in making magnetic skyrmions, previously only found at temperatures close to absolute zero, at room temperature.
"This is a potentially new way to store information, and the energy costs are expected to be extremely low," says UC Davis professor Kai Liu.
Skyrmions are either "bloch skyrmions," with a spiral pattern of magnetic moments around a perpendicular center, or "hedgehogs," where the magnetic moments orient like spikes on a hedgehog. Magnetic skyrmions can be continuously deformed, but they do not readily go back into a state in which all magnetic moments are aligned, which means they could store information at an energy cost much lower than current technology.
The researchers designed a nanosynthesis approach to achieve artificial bloch magnetic skyrmions at room temperature. The researchers created a pattern of magnetic nanodots on a multilayered film where magnetic moments are aligned normal to the plane, and then used ion beam irradiation to change the interface between the dots and the film to allow "imprinting" of the magnetic moments of the dots into the film. Using this approach and magnetic-imaging studies, the researchers were able to find the first direct evidence of arrays of stable spiral magnetic skyrmions beneath the nanodots at room temperature.
From UC Davis News & Information
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