August 07, 2017 – August 10, 2017

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Location

Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

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Organizers

Shizeng Lin, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Marc Janoschek, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Filip Ronning, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Ivar Martin, Argonne National Laboratory

Markus Garst, TU Dresden

 

Overview

One central theme of research in modern condensed matter physics is understanding of the topological excitations, their physical properties and their role is determining material properties. A magnetic skyrmion is a particle-like spin texture discovered recently in MnSi by neutron scattering. Since its discovery, the skyrmion has attracted huge attention by condensed matter physics community for its unique physical properties. For instance, the nontrivial skyrmion topology in real space endows conduction electrons in metallic compounds a Berry phase, which gives rise to the topological Hall response. The conduction electron can drive the skyrmions into motion through the spin transfer torque. Remarkably, the threshold current to make skyrmion mobile is about 5 to 6 orders of magnitude lower than that for magnetic domain. This unique property underpins the spintronic applications of skyrmions.

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In the past several years, there has been tremendous progress in the field of magnetic skyrmions, and the sub-field skyrmionics is beginning to emerge from these studies. The field is mainly driven by (1) discovery of new materials hosting skyrmions, (2) observation of novel properties of skyrmions, (3) conceptual developments of new skyrmion-based devices. Many new skyrmion-hosting systems have been discovered including multiferroics, inversion-symmetric magnets and heterostructures. Skyrmions in these materials couple to various external stimuli like electromagnetic fields, elasticity, and exhibit novel properties, which are awaiting to be exploited for device applications.

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On the theory side, better understanding of the skyrmion stabilization mechanisms, skyrmion-magnon/phonon/electric current coupling and skyrmion dynamics has been achieved. At the same time, the generation, manipulation and imaging of skyrmions in heterostructures have been demonstrated. Meanwhile, new challenges have emerged: (1) optimization and control of skyrmion properties, including size, helicity, lattice constant to make them suitable for device applications; (2) quantitative multiscale modeling of skyrmion materials; (3) development of new spectroscopy method to characterize and image skyrmion phase. With these developments and emergent challenges, it would be timely to bring active researchers in this field together to discuss the materials, phenomena and future application challenges.

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This workshop is aimed at providing a platform for exchanging ideas among researchers specialized in material synthesis, characterization, modeling and device applications, in contrast to previous workshops, where only one or two of these aspects were addressed. To meet this goal, we will allocate ample time for discussions after each talk. The Fraunfelder rule will be strictly enforced. For 45-minute talk, we will reserve 15 mins for discussions and questions. Students and young researchers play vital role in the development of the field. To reach out to the students and junior researchers, we will provide two tutorial talks on the experimental and theoretical developments on the first day of the workshop. Invited speakers will be asked to prepare the presentation in a pedagogical way. We will arrange talks and prominent poster sessions for student and junior researchers.

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Event Website: http://www.cvent.com/events/skyrmionics-materials-phenomena-and-applications/event-summary-b744dce110f14be1856fc0324f954a37.aspx