Tiny magnetic whirls that can occur in materials—so-called skyrmions—hold high promises for novel electronic devices or magnetic memory in which they are used as bits to store information. A fundamental prerequisite for any application is the stability of these magnetic whirls. A research team of the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics of Kiel University has now demonstrated that so far neglected magnetic interactions can play a key role for skyrmion stability and can drastically enhance skyrmion lifetime. Their work, which has been published today in Nature Communications, opens also the perspective to stabilize skyrmions in new material systems in which the previously considered mechanisms are not sufficient.
Source:
https://phys.org/news/2020-09-scientists-mechanism-stabilization-skyrmions.html