Storage breakthrough promised as scientists devise technique to arrange skyrmions in structures called 'skyrmion bags'

Skyrmions are believed to be the next generation of data storage/processing devices

A group of researchers from the UK and US claim to have discovered a new way to arrange skyrmion structures - a development that could take researchers a step closer to creating high-capacity data storage devices.

Skyrmions are said to be the next generation of data storage/processing devices. These tiny, nanometre-sized structures are found on magnetic films and can spin like vortices on the surface.

The theoretical model of skyrmions was first proposed in the 1960s by Professor Tony Skyrme of the University of Birmingham. In Tony Skyrme's model, skyrmions were proposed as a model of the nucleon.

Some past studies have reported observing skyrmions in superconductors, Bose-Einstein condensates, and chiral nematic liquid crystals, although not all those findings have been conclusively proved.

For the past several years, scientists have been studying these structures as it is believed that skyrmions have a greater potential to store denser data compared to the current storage capacity of magnetic data-storage techniques.

According to scientists, the unique shape of these structures could also enable data transfer using much less power.

However, the main challenge to making skyrmions capable of storing and transferring data lies in finding a way for arranging these structures.

In the current study, researchers from the Universities of Birmingham, Bristol, and Boulder, Colorado demonstrated that it is possible to arrange multiple skyrmions in the form of 'skyrmion bags', which can hold any number of skyrmions, thereby immensely increasing the potential for data storage.

The research team performed computer simulations to model the technique in magnetic devices and also demonstrated it numerically, as well as experimentally, in liquid crystals.

"We find that skyrmion bags act like single skyrmions in pairwise interaction and under the influence of current in magnetic materials, and are thus an exciting proposition for topological magnetic storage and logic devices," the researchers said.

According to them, this technology has the potential to find application in areas such as display screens, solar cells and sensors.

The detailed findings of the study are published in journal Nature Physics.

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