Most people can go their entire lives without knowing what skyrmions are, and they generally get along just fine.
However, skyrmions are probably more useful than you think. New research on them has resulted in an article being published in the highly prestigious journal Nature Nanotechnology, making these nanoscopic discoveries a big deal.
The vast majority of the research has been carried out at the Institute of Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, but a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has also been involved.
“Skyrmions are small, magnetic vortices that can store information in a completely new way,” explained Asle Sudbø, who is head of NTNU’s Centre for Quantum Spintronics (QuSpin).
These nanoscale vortices could help in the development of computers that resemble biological brains.
This means they could play a key role in developing the technology of the future.
“Instead of the current technology, where we constantly need more space and energy to process data, skyrmions could make it possible to build much smaller and more energy-efficient data storage systems,” explained Sudbø.
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