Magnetic bubbles with a twist

摘要: Present-day hard disk drives use magnetic bits that are read out by movable heads. To circumvent the inherent fragility of such a mechanical construction, and to exploit third dimension for increased storage density, Parkin et al. proposed racetrack memory device ( 1 ). The general concept is information encoded in localized magnetization configuration can be driven through material with electrical currents transported stationary head. Recently, interface-induced skyrmions, which circular particlelike objects (see figure, panel A), have been envisioned as ideal candidates future memory–type applications B) 2 , 3 On page 283 this issue, Jiang 4 ) made progress toward realizing architecture. They report on generation movement individual skyrmionic bubbles at room temperature, accomplished exploiting two different spin-orbit coupling–related effects.