Project Lead: Dieter Suess

Lifetime: 2023-2026

Partners:

• Manfred Albrecht, University of Augsburg
• Hans Hug, EMPA, Schweiz

Scientific Aims:

In today's digital world, the need for data storage is growing exponentially, leading to a constant demand for new storage concepts that can provide higher density, faster access, and lower power consumption. These concepts can enable breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analysis, which require massive amounts of data storage and processing power. Our project focuses on developing a new magnetic data storage concept that uses tiny swirls or twists in the magnetic moments of a magnet, called magnetic skyrmions. These objects can be moved by applying an electric current within a thin magnetic film that is only several atoms thick. Skyrmion-based storage has several advantages over conventional storage technologies such as magnetic hard disk drives or dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). Compared to hard disks, skyrmion-based storage does not contain moving parts and can be realized in multiple magnetic layers, allowing data to be stored in three dimensions. Compared to DRAM, it has the advantage of being non-volatile, meaning that data can be retained even when power is turned off. In our project, we plan to demonstrate the feasibility of a racetrack storage device using two different topologically-protected spin textures to represent binary information. This approach overcomes the bit error rate issues reported for conventional skyrmion racetrack-like devices that encode binary information by the distance between identical chiral states. By demonstrating the feasibility of a racetrack storage device, we hope to pave the way for future innovations in the field of magnetic skyrmion-based storage.