A research group, headed by Prof. Mingliang  TIAN in CHMFL , collaborated with Song JIN  group from University of Wisconsin—Madison,  has made a new progress in the study of low-dimensional spiral magnet: They found, for the first time,  one-dimensional MnSi nanowires Skyrmion phase (S phase) with the phase diagram and explored its stability mechanism by the method of reluctance.

Magnetic skyrmion, a novel topological stable vortex-like spin texture, has intriguing physical properties and technological promises in magnetic race-track memory storage devices due to the low threshold current densities required to move skyrmion domains.

The discoveries are of great importance not only for fundamental understanding of skyrmion physics in reduced dimensions but also for future high density magnetic storage technology where stable skyrmions in one-dimensional (1D) magnetic system could be manipulated with ultra-low spin polarized current density.

The above research was published in the journal Nano Letters  on March 21, titled   Highly Stable Skyrmion State in Helimagnetic MnSi Nanowires.

( http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl5001899)

Left: the typical MR of MnSi NWs, the inset shows the transport measurements device; Right: the magnetic phase diagram of MnSi NWs under parallel fields