DATE2021.11.12 #Press Releases

Successful visualization of the three-dimensional shape of a tornado (skyrmion string) in a magnet.

Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.

-New Magnetic Information Processing Methods Expected to be Pioneered

The University of Tokyo

Kwansei Gakuin University

Kyoto University

RIKEN

Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute

Japan Science and Technology Agency

Summary

A research group led by Associate Professor Shinichiro Seki of the Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo (Visiting Professor at the RIKEN Center for Solid State Physics, concurrently a JST PRESTO researcher), Professor Motohiro Suzuki of the School of Engineering, Kwansei Gakuin University, and Professor Teruo Ono of the Institute of Chemistry, Kyoto University, has successfully visualized the three-dimensional shape of "skyrmion strings," a tornado structure created by electron spin in magnetic materials The spin spiral is a two-dimensional structure that is formed by electron spins in a magnetic body. Although it is theoretically predicted that spin spirals behave like particles in two-dimensional systems and like strings in three-dimensional systems, experimental observation of the latter has been considered extremely difficult.

In this study, by applying the principle of X-ray tomography used in CT scans and synthesizing two-dimensional transmission images observed from various angles, we succeeded in directly observing the three-dimensional shape of a several hundred nanometer diameter Skillmion string. Skillmion strings have attracted much attention in recent years as ultra-high-density information carriers, and clarifying their behavior in three-dimensional space is expected to lead to the elucidation of efficient control methods using external fields and the development of new magnetic information processing methods.

Schematic diagram of this research:
Schematic diagram of a skyrmion string in which electron spins in a magnetic material are aligned in a tornado-shape (left) and the three-dimensional shape of a skyrmion string observed experimentally by X-ray tomography measurement (right).

The research results were published in the online edition of the British scientific journal Nature Materials on November 11, 2021 (UK time).

Department of Physics Project Researcher Mio Ishibashi is participating in this research.
For more information, please visit the website of the Faculty of Engineering , The University of Tokyo.