Magnetic skyrmions: advances in physics and potential applications

Magnetic skyrmions are small swirling topological defects in the magnetization texture stabilized by the protection due to their topology. In most cases they are induced by chiral interactions between atomic spins existing in non-centrosymmetric magnetic compounds or in thin films in which inversion symmetry is broken by the presence of an interface. The skyrmions can be extremely small with diameters in the nanometer range and, importantly, they behave as particles that can be moved, created or annihilated, making them suitable for abacus-type applications in information storage, logic or neuro-inspired technologies. Up to the last years skyrmions were observed only at low temperature (and in most cases under large applied fields) but important efforts of research has been recently devoted to find thin film and multilayered structures in which skyrmions are stabilized above room temperature and manipulated by current. This article focuses on these recent advances on the route to devices prototypes.