Generation of high-density biskyrmions by electric current

Abstract

Spintronics: Generation of magnetic biskyrmions by electric current Electric current can generate and control the density of magnetic biskyrmions in a centrosymmetric MnNiGa alloy at room temperature. Skyrmions are chiral spin textures whose spins point in all directions wrapping a sphere, making them topological in nature. Topological protection, combined with their small size and the fact that they can be moved with ultralow current densities, make skyrmions attractive candidates as information carriers in memory and logic devices. While skyrmions are usually created using magnetic fields, which somewhat restricts their applications, an international team of researchers led by Ying Zhang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences use Lorentz transmission electron microscopy to show that electric current can control the generation of molecular forms of two bound skyrmions, known as biskyrmions, in MnNiGa over a range of temperatures, enabling the formation of high-density biskyrmion lattices.