Materials science: Pushing spins around

The near-room temperature motion of magnetic structures by very low current densities is reported this week in Nature Communications. This work could be utilized in the design of all-electrical novel information storage devices.

Xiuzhen Yu and colleagues report the motion of skyrmions - magnetic nanostructures with a vortex-like configuration of spins - in iron-germanium (FeGe) at temperatures only 25 K below room temperature. Skyrmion motion is achieved by electrical currents with densities below 100 A/cm2, which is 100,000 times less than for domain walls in metals. These findings may bring current-induced motion of spin textures closer to applications in information storage devices.

doi: 10.1038/ncomms1990

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