R&D: Skyrmionics – Computing and Memory Technologies Based on Topological Excitations in Magnets

Journal of Applied Physics has published an article written by Hamed Vakili, Department of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA, Jun-Wen Xu, Center for Quantum Phenomena, Department of Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA, Wei Zhou, Department of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA, Mohammad Nazmus Sakib, Md Golam Morshed, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA, Timothy Hartnett, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA, Yassine Quessab, Center for Quantum Phenomena, Department of Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA, Kai Litzius, Center for Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA, Chung T. Ma, Department of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA, Samiran Ganguly, Mircea R. Stan, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA, Prasanna V. Balachandran, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA, Geoffrey S. D. Beach, Center for Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA, S. Joseph Poon, Department of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA, Andrew D. Kent, Center for Quantum Phenomena, Department of Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA, and Avik W. Ghosh, Department of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA , and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA.

Abstract: “Solitonic magnetic excitations such as domain walls and, specifically, skyrmionics enable the possibility of compact, high density, ultrafast, all-electronic, low-energy devices, which is the basis for the emerging area of skyrmionics. The topological winding of skyrmion spins affects their overall lifetime, energetics, and dynamical behavior. In this Perspective, we discuss skyrmionics in the context of the present-day solid-state memory landscape and show how their size, stability, and mobility can be controlled by material engineering, as well as how they can be nucleated and detected. Ferrimagnets near their compensation points are promising candidates for this application, leading to a detailed exploration of amorphous CoGd as well as the study of emergent materials such as Mn4N and inverse Heusler alloys. Along with material properties, geometrical parameters such as film thickness, defect density, and notches can be used to tune skyrmion properties, such as their size and stability. Topology, however, can be a double-edged sword, especially for isolated metastable skyrmions, as it brings stability at the cost of additional damping and deflective Magnus forces compared to domain walls. Skyrmion deformation in response to forces also makes them intrinsically slower than domain walls. We explore potential analog applications of skyrmions, including temporal memory at low density—one skyrmion per racetrack—that capitalizes on their near ballistic current–velocity relation to map temporal data to spatial data and decorrelators for stochastic computing at a higher density that capitalizes on their interactions. We summarize the main challenges of achieving a skyrmionics technology, including maintaining positional stability with very high accuracy and electrical readout, especially for small ferrimagnetic skyrmions, deterministic nucleation, and annihilation and overall integration with digital circuits with the associated circuit overhead.“