An international research team, working with cutting-edge technology at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, has made a discovery that may dramatically expand the materials used in next-generation, energy-efficient memory and logic devices.
The team, which includes Nebraska’s Abdelghani Laraoui, assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering, successfully demonstrated for the first time the imaging of magnetic skyrmions at room temperature in composition engineered magnetic materials. The team observed the tiny, vortex-like particles in these magnetic materials using a nitrogen-vacancy scanning probe in Laraoui’s lab. The findings are published in ACS Nano.
“This discovery is a huge step forward because, until now, scientists could only observe these skyrmions in bulk chiral magnetic materials at very low temperatures,” Laraoui said. “Being able to study them at room temperature opens up a whole new world of applications and possibilities.”
This breakthrough with room-temperature skyrmions is fascinating! Could this discovery play a significant role in advancing quantum computing hardware or other next-gen technologies?