{"id":32,"date":"2016-01-18T12:04:56","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T12:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/in-abstract\/?p=32"},"modified":"2017-03-27T15:18:54","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T14:18:54","slug":"additive-interfacial-chiral-interaction-in-multilayers-for-stabilization-of-small-individual-skyrmions-at-room-temperature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/in-abstract\/additive-interfacial-chiral-interaction-in-multilayers-for-stabilization-of-small-individual-skyrmions-at-room-temperature\/","title":{"rendered":"Additive interfacial chiral interaction in multilayers for stabilization of small individual skyrmions at room temperature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Towards smaller, faster, more robust and energy efficient data storage<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nanoscale chiral magnetic skyrmions have been observed at room temperature for the first time. This is an important experimental breakthrough in the burgeoning field of spintronics, or spin-based electronics, which studies the role of the electron spin in solid state physics. Skyrmions resemble small magnetic vortices and can occur in many materials. Spintronics-based devices can enable non-volatile power efficient functions, like in MRAMs (Magnetic Random Access Memories), as they do not need an electric current to retain their “spin” or magnetic state. Nanoscale spintronics devices could in principle be smaller, faster, more robust and energy efficient than current technologies for data storage.<\/p>\n

Scientists from The University of Manchester, the CNRS\/Thales laboratory in France, and the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland, in the context of the MAGicSky EU project, have designed cobalt-based multi-layered thin films in which the cobalt layer is sandwiched between two heavy metals. Using a magnetisation-sensitive scanning X-ray transmission microscopy technique, they imaged small magnetic domains at very low fields in these multilayers. The study of their behaviour in a perpendicular magnetic field allows them to conclude that they are actually tiny magnetic skyrmions stabilised by chiral interactions. This discovery of stable sub-100 nm individual skyrmions at room temperature in a technologically relevant material opens the way for device applications in the near future that could revolutionise the data storage industry.<\/p>\n

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