Magnetic particles move 10 times faster with new material design
Researchers have demonstrated how to dramatically speed up the movement of magnetic skyrmions—tiny spinning structures that could power future computing devices—by suppressing forces that normally slow them down. The breakthrough, achieved by tuning a synthetic antiferromagnet, opens a path to energy-efficient alternatives to traditional semiconductors for artificial intelligence and data processing.
Originaltitel: Enhanced thermally-activated skyrmion diffusion with tunable effective gyrotropic force
<p>Magnetic skyrmions, topologically-stabilized spin textures that emerge in magnetic systems, have garnered considerable interest due to a variety of electromagnetic responses that are governed by the topology. The topology that creates a microscopic gyrotropic force also causes detrimental effects, such as the skyrmion Hall effect, which is a well-studied phenomenon highlighting the influence of topology on the deterministic dynamics and drift motion. Furthermore, the gyrotropic force is anticipated to have a substantial impact on stochastic diffusive motion; however, the predicted repercussions have yet to be demonstrated, even qualitatively. Here we demonstrate enhanced thermally-activated diffusive motion of skyrmions in a specifically designed synthetic antiferromagnet. Suppressing the effective gyrotropic force by tuning the angular momentum compensation leads to a more than 10 times enhanced diffusion coefficient compared to that of ferromagnetic skyrmions. Consequently, our findings not only demonstrate the gyro-force dependence of the diffusion coefficient but also enable ultimately energy-efficient unconventional stochastic computing.</p>