Weird magnetic 'skyrmion' quasiparticle could be used as a bit in advanced computing memory

A bizarre type of magnetic quasiparticle that looks like a tiny, swirling bubble could one day be used as a computing bit in future memory devices after scientists sped it up enough to transmit data.

"Skyrmions" — informally called "nanobubbles" by the scientists — are formed of a few dozen atoms and are just a few nanometers in width. By contrast, a strand of human hair is up to 100,000 nanometers thick. A skyrmion generates itself from magnetic field lines as it moves through a medium. The quasiparticle comprises elementary nanomagnets, called spins, that wind together over the magnetic lines to form a whirling, spiral structure that resembles a tight knot.

Scientists have long theorized that skyrmions could potentially be used to store data — where the presence of a skyrmion will encode a 1 and its absence will encode 0. For instance, IBM researchers used skyrmions in a prototype device called "racetrack memory." Previous research has also identified them as a candidate for qubits, or quantum bits, in quantum computers.

In a new study, published April 19 in the journal Science, scientists argue that skyrmions can be used to store information in a new type of "universal memory." Such a component would combine the best of separate ones in computers today — namely, short-term memory, like random access memory (RAM), and flash memory, such as solid-state drives (SSDs) or hard drives.

RAM is fast but occupies a lot of space and needs a constant power supply, meaning data is wiped when a computer is turned off. Flash memory, meanwhile, is dense and can retain data without power, but its data transfer speeds are much slower than RAM. They all use electrons as bits.

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In the new study, the researchers say skyrmions could be used in place of electrons as a new type of bit that could eliminate these limitations.