News in Press-centre

Oleg Tretyakova, the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) researcher, as a member of the international team of researchers, revealed skyrmion Hall effect for the first time in the world. This discovery is an important step towards the creation of a new faster, cheaper, secure, and nonvolatile electronic memory. The result of the work of researchers from Russia, Japan, the United States, and Germany was reflected in an article published in the NATURE PHYSICS journal.

According to Oleg Tretyakova, Chief Researcher at the Laboratory of Thin Film Technologies, FEFU School of Natural Sciences, skyrmions (topologically nontrivial configurations of the magnetic spin with vortex-like structure) can become the basis for the future magnetic memory technologies. Modern hard drives for data storage use magnetic domains whose minimum physical size has already reached 100 nanometers. Skyrmions are more stable structures whose size can be reduced to a few nanometers, thus allowing using them for the creation of data storage and processing devices with higher density. More importantly, such memory will save information even when the power is turned off.

During the experiments, it has been established that skyrmions move at a much greater angle with respect to the applied current than it was predicted by the initial theory. This is an important result that matters for the future design of actual devices containing these topological quasi-particles. Magnetic skyrmions are expected to be used in future applications of Spintronics—Racetrack Memory and logic devices.

"Earlier it was predicted that this skyrmion Hall angle should depend only on static skyrmion properties, such as diameter," explains Professor Tretyakova. "In our work, we found that this angle depends heavily on speed—a behavior that cannot be explained by commonly used models. Therefore, we have developed a new model that takes into account the dynamic changes in the skyrmion spin structure. We have also shown the ability to control this angle and the need to take into account the dynamic changes of skyrmion trajectories when designing future nanoelectronic devices."

Alexander Samardak, Leading Researcher of the Laboratory of Thin Film Technologies, FEFU School of Natural Sciences, commented that new data storage and processing systems based on skyrmions are already underway to develop. Such elements of memory are cheaper to manufacture, they will run faster and more reliable, and consume very little power. In the future, they can be used in the production of nanoelectronic devices, such as PCs, smartphones, and sensors, able to work for a long time without recharging.

Previously, while working in the same direction of the development of a new type of electronics, FEFU researchers have created the world's first polycrystalline three-layer Ruthenium-Cobalt-Ruthenium (Ru/Co/Ru) films with the magnetic layer of just four atomic layers thick. These new ultra-thin materials also have great prospects of application in nanoelectronics.

It is worth noting that the article by the international group with the participation of the FEFU researcher was published in the publication of such a level for the first time—the impact factor (IF) of the NATURE PHYSICS journal is 18.79. In 2016, the research papers with the participation of Oleg Tretyakova were also published in high-rating journals of Physical Review Letters (IF = 7.65), Applied Physics Letters (IF = 3.3) and Physical Review B (IF = 3.72).