Country
GermanyHost institution
Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg (Halle, Germany).
Supervisor
Prof. Dr. Ingrid Mertig
Description
Magnetic skyrmions are highly promising for spintronics applications. The potential bits in racetrack storage devices can be written, deleted, moved, and read, allowing for an efficient storage and manipulation of data. One main drawback that hinders the realization of this device is the so-called skyrmion Hall effect. Because of its non-trivial real-space topology, a skyrmion does not move parallel to an applied current.
The main goal of this project is to find methods to suppress the skyrmion Hall effect or to consider alternative magnetic quasiparticles that do not show a transverse deflection when driven by currents. To achieve this aim, analytical considerations using the Thiele equation are complemented by micromagnetic simulations.
As a foundation, our group in MLU has already shown that the skyrmion Hall effect can be suppressed by manipulating the SOT by using a low-symmetric heavy metal as part of the racetrack setup. Alternatively, magnetic skyrmioniums or antiferromagnetic skyrmions possess a vanishing topological charge, therefore they can move along the racetrack unimpededly. A second emergent electrodynamic effect is the topological Hall effect of electrons. In addition to the conventional and anomalous Hall effects, the non-trivial real-space topology of a skyrmion leads to the emergence of this additional contribution. For this reason, it can be used to detect non-collinear spin textures in racetrack devices, what is an essential constituent of the introduced future technology. A sub-goal of this project is the calculation and understanding of the topological Hall properties of skyrmions and alternative magnetic nano-objects.
Requirements
See general eligibility conditions.
Planned Secondments
UHAM (Hamburg, Germany), under the supervision of Kirsten von Bergmann.
SIMUNE (San Sebastián, Spain), under the supervision of Peter Koval.
Registering University
MLU (Halle, Germany).
