Researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory and the National Laboratory
Scientists have discovered that in ultrathintwo types of magnetic fields can coexist in a material. Physicists call them merons and skyrmions. They are similar to the miniature swirling storms that dot the flat ferromagnetic landscape, but differ in size and behavior.
“Both skyrmions and merons are very stable,because, like tightly tied knots, they are difficult to untangle, explains Luis Balicas, who works simultaneously at MagLab and Florida State University. “This stability, along with their magnetic properties, makes them attractive as storage media.”
The authors of the new study observed bothmagnetic textures in a thin film simultaneously at low temperature, from −173.333 °C to −103.8 °C. In addition, the merons were stored up to room temperature, which is important for their use in practical devices. In the past, they were only observed at much lower temperatures in various materials.
The team of scientists performed additional magneticand other visualization at Argonne Center for Nanoscale Materials. “Much more basic research is needed to fully understand the behavior of skyrmions and merons under different conditions and how to use them to encode information. There are many seemingly fantastic schemes. We cannot predict the future, but it is likely that one or more of them will be realized in the future,” the scientists explain.
The study was published in Advanced Materials.
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On the cover: a simulation capturing the various twisted textures of skyrmions and merons observed in a thin film of a ferromagnet
Credit: University of Edinburgh/Based on microscopic images collected by Argonne National Laboratory on samples prepared in MagLab