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Chiral topological defects

Room-temperature control of topological defects in an antiferromagnet

Nature Reviews Materials volume 8, page 361 (2023)Cite this article

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Topologically protected magnetic textures are promising for future memory devices because they are robust against external perturbations and can propagate with minimal energy consumption. Such topological defects have been widely investigated in ferromagnetic materials, but in these systems their current-driven motion is deflected in the transverse direction, hindering applications. This issue is resolved in antiferromagnetic materials, in which the force responsible for the deflection is compensated by the magnetic structure. Oliver Amin, Peter Wadley and collaborators investigated merons and antimerons, which are chiral topological magnetic textures with half-integer topological number, in the thin-film antiferromagnet CuMnAs. They demonstrated the generation and control of meron–antimeron pairs at room temperature by means of electrical pulses, an important step towards the development of antiferromagnet-based memory devices.

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  1. Nature Reviews Materials http://www.nature.com/natrevmats/

    Giulia Pacchioni

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  1. Giulia Pacchioni
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Correspondence to Giulia Pacchioni.

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Pacchioni, G. Room-temperature control of topological defects in an antiferromagnet. Nat Rev Mater 8, 361 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-023-00569-7

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