Writing and Deletion of Single Skyrmions Could Yield Far Smaller Storage Devices

Scientists from the University of Hamburg say they have found a way to create and annihilate single skyrmions -- small magnetic vortices that occur in a variety of materials -- in a manner that corresponds with the writing and deletion of information from a storage device.

As the first experiment to demonstrate controlled manipulation of the strange and newly discovered particles, the researchers argue that the event represents a significant stride in incorporating them into information technology and specifically data storage. As this happens, scientists envision a day in which hard drives for some devices could shrink to the size of a grain of rice.

This is because while conventional memory devices rely on magnetic bits that go haywire when placed too close together, skyrmions contain spinning electrons that point in many different directions, allowing them to be paired much more closely without interfering with one another.

In order to manipulate these particles on an individual level, the group used a two-atom-thin film of palladium and iron on an iridium crystal.

"In an external magnetic field this sample exhibits single localized skyrmions with a diameter of a few nanometers that can be imaged in a spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscope," the press release regarding the study explains.

As a result, the microscopic particles can be written and deleted simply through small currents emitted from the tip of a microscope. In the case that they are created, "the previously parallel magnetic moments are twisted to form a knot-like magnetic state, and for the deletion this knot is unwound again."

The way Ph.D. student Niklas Rommin described it: "We transferred the idea of tying a knot to memorize something to the field of storage technology so we can now store data in a two-dimensional magnetic know."

Whether or not skyrmions will ultimately make their way into daily devices is still not clear, the researchers say; however, the ability of creating and deleting the small particles on an individual level certainly places it in the realm of greater plausibility.

The study was published in the journal Science.