A Massive Boost to Information Technologies is on its Way
Skyrmions could lead to some extraordinary innovations in the field of information technology in the coming years.
The term ‘Information Technology’ refers to a concept where computers are used to store, retrieve, manipulate, and transmit information. It is an essential component of the enterprise community in today’s digital. The overwhelming domination of technology in each and every sector clearly signifies the importance of information technologies and that’s the reason why continuous improvements are being made in this field. The latest advancement in this regard came from an international team of scientists which included researchers from Sweden, France, and Germany. The physicists from the Uppsala University, Université Paris-Saclay, Johannes Gutenberg University, and Kiel University joined forces to extend the idea that ‘Skyrmions’, Nano-sized magnetic particles, have serious potential for new techniques of data storage and information technologies.
The researching team showed that an antiparticle equivalent of Skyrmions is also there in ferromagnetic materials. They took help of highly advanced computer simulations to demonstrate their findings to the world. These simulations have the capability to accurately model the magnetic properties of the Nano-meter thick materials.
The movement of electrons is vital for all the electronic appliances to perform their assigned tasks. Electrons have a positively-charged antiparticle which is known as the ‘Positron’. According to scientists, the guidelines will stay the same for positrons despite their extremely smaller quantity. Similarly, the presence of ‘Antiskyrmions’ cannot be neglected. Skyrmions are explained as the whirls of magnetic moments that are found in magnetic films which are a few atoms thick. These magnetic moments extend across a few nanometers.
Skyrmions have a special property called ‘Topological Charge’ which is pretty much similar to the electric charge in terms of its dynamics. For instance, if a force is applied on Skyrmions to move them towards the right side, the Antiskyrmions will be pushed towards the left by the same force. For these reasons, it is believed that Skyrmions can provide new ways of storing and processing information. Consequently, a lot of research has been performed on them since their experimental observations.
According to the research published in the ‘Nature Electronics’, a whole lot more is taking place inside nanometer-thick ferromagnets. The scientists observed that both Skyrmions and Antiskyrmions can coexist inside these magnets. They found this amazing information by making use of the simulation techniques to compute the dynamics and magnetic properties in such magnets. They applied electric currents to these films and observed how they react to it. The expected behavior was observed, where opposite topological charges went in opposite directions when low currents were applied. However, variations were observed once the current was increased. Skyrmions followed the regular trend and continued to move in straight lines while the motion of Antiskyrmions became curvy.
The increment in the energy, transferred to the system, led to another amazing discovery. The researchers observed that the trochoidal motion of the Antiskyrmions results in the periodic formation of Skyrmion-Antiskyrmion pairs. An extraordinary fact about these findings is that each Antiskyrmion created becomes a new source of these pairs. Dr. Bertrand Dupé, a Senior Author of the study who is a Researcher in the Interdisciplinary Spintronics Research Group at the Johannes Gutenberg University, mentioned that in the following words:
“To put this into perspective: this is akin to sending a single positron through a strong magnetic field and getting a gas of electrons and positrons in return.”
Scientists are hoping that this will prove to be an important step towards the technologies of the future. They mentioned that Antiskyrmions will act as the source of Skyrmions in all the applications which use them to store and transmit data. The trochoidal motion also sets an ultimate speed limit of topological charges which is crucial for future inventions. This research is getting a lot of appraisal from the scientific community due to the solutions it can potentially offer. For example, it can help the scientists to figure out a long-lasting mystery about the cosmology of our universe.
Researchers have been struggling to know why there is more matter than antimatter in the observable universe. The simulations showed that the quantity of Skyrmions was larger than their counterparts which could help to explain the imbalance between matter and antimatter in these ferromagnets. Dupé summed it up by saying,
“In the nanoscale magnetic universe, at least, matter can arise naturally from a single antiparticle seed.”

Computer Scientist by qualification who loves to read, write, eat, and travel