Blowing magnetic skyrmion bubbles

Abstract

Skyrmions emerge in trilayers: Skyrmions are tiny whirlpools of magnetic spin with potential to act as carriers of information in future devices. Skyrmions have been observed in multiple materials but usually at impractically low temperatures. Jiang et al. used a constriction in a trilayer system to create skyrmions at room temperature (see the Perspective by von Bergmann). The authors pushed elongated magnetic domains through the constriction using an in-plane current, causing individual skyrmion bubbles to form. Science , this issue p. 283 ; see also p. 234