Skyrmions are tiny magnetic vortices and are considered promising candidates for the information storage devices of the future. With their help, data storage and processing of enormous capacity could be realized.
A team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has developed a process for producing a magnetic thin-film material (manganese silicide) in which such magnetic vortices can be accommodated particularly effectively. They can be easily created and erased on surfaces. They are also significantly smaller (a few nanometers) than the magnetic bits on today's hard drives, which measure around 50 nanometers. They can also be controlled more advantageously with electricity than with magnetic fields, which allows for better scalability.
Thin layers of a MnSi compound known as the B20 phase are particularly suitable for the formation of skyrmions. However, undesirable crystal phases can be formed during their production. The team has now developed a method that prevents this, resulting in thin layers of flawless B20-MnSi. A central role in the new method is played by the sudden heating of the material using short, very bright flashes of light, which the researchers can generate on site at the "BlitzLab". By varying the power of the flashes, the ratio of the different crystal phases could be adjusted very precisely. As hoped, thin layers of pure B20-MnSi were formed at relatively high power levels.
