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Nanoelectronics based on topological structures

Nature Materials volume 18, pages 188–190 (2019)Cite this article

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Topological structures have considerable potential in nanoelectronics and new device concepts. They are key to the design and understanding of novel functionalities in ferroic materials — that is, materials that have one or more types of built-in order such as magnetic, ferroelectric, ferroelastic and multiferroic materials.

A topological defect can occur in an ordered medium as a discontinuity or place where the order does not seamlessly transition from one area to another1. Topological defects in condensed matter can be found, for example, in materials that have a spontaneous electric polarization, magnetization or strain that can be reoriented by an external field. The spontaneous formation of such specific order can manifest itself in different directions for different regions of the material. Regions of uniform order are called a domain, and the nanoscopic boundary between neighbouring domains a domain wall, which is one type of topological defect. In addition, other more complex topological structures such as vortices and skyrmions can be observed, created and manipulated in ferroic materials, and are the focus of intense research efforts to exploit their structure, symmetry, chemistry and unique properties for nanoelectronics applications. The study of fundamental properties of such topological structures and their exploitation constitutes an emerging field in condensed matter research, with many new concepts being brought forward. Developments in topological structure research in magnetic materials are ahead of ferroelectrics and multiferroics by a few years — for example, with magnetic domain wall ‘racetrack’ devices based on spin transfer torque, which were proposed in 2008, now being developed and pursued commercially2. Potential synergies between research communities that from a traditional perspective are working on magnetic materials (for example, spintronics and metals) and those working on ferroelectrics and multiferroics (for example, oxide electronics, semiconductors and insulators) can provide a rich ground for future developments in this specific area of solid state materials research in the coming years.

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Fig. 1: Skyrmions, domain walls and vortices as nanoelectronic elements.
Fig. 2: Diamond colour centre magnetometry for imaging magnetic nanostructures, and direct optical writing of topological structures.

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Acknowledgements

J.S. acknowledges funding support by the Australian Research Council (ARC) through Discovery Grants and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Future Low‐Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET; project no. CE170100039).

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  1. School of Materials Science, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Jan Seidel

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Seidel, J. Nanoelectronics based on topological structures. Nature Mater 18, 188–190 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0301-z

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