A single magnetic skyrmion detected at room temperature for the first time

A team of researchers from CNRS, Thales and the Université Paris-Saclay, all in France has for the first time detected a single skyrmion at room temperature. In their paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the group describes their efforts, what they achieved and future avenues of research efforts.

Five years ago, a team at the University of Hamburg demonstrated for the first time that skyrmions could be used to store and erase data held on magnetic media. But to do that, the media had to be at a very cold temperature. In this new effort, the researchers in France have shown one of the important parts of memory storage—reading one unit—is possible at room temperature.