EDITOR’S QUESTION
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST DATA STORAGE
CHALLENGES CURRENTLY FACING
BUSINESSES AND ORGANISATIONS?
cientists at the
Universities of
Birmingham, Bristol
and Colorado Boulder
have moved a step
closer to developing
the next generation of data storage and
processing devices, using an emerging
science called skyrmionics.
S
“The challenge of improving our data
storage is becoming increasingly urgent,”
explains Mark Dennis, Professor of
Theoretical Physics at the University of
Birmingham and lead author of the study.
Skyrmionics focuses on harnessing the
properties of nanometer-sized structures
in magnetic films called skyrmions.
These spin on the surface of the magnet
like tiny vortices and scientists believe
they could be used to store much denser
quantities of data than is currently
possible using existing magnetic data
storage techniques on which modern
computers currently rely. “We will need new technological
approaches to increase the amount of
data we want to store in our computers,
phones and other devices, and skyrmion
bags might be a route to this. Rather than
using trains of single skyrmions to encode
binary bits, each skyrmion bag can hold
any number of skyrmions, massively
increasing the potential for data storage.”
The shape of these skyrmion structures
means data encoded in them could also be
transferred using much less power than is
currently achievable. The team has modelled its technique
in magnetic devices using computer
simulations and successfully tested it in
experiments involving liquid crystals.
But arranging these new structures in
a way that makes them capable of storing
and transferring data has proved
a challenge. Skyrmions were originally proposed
as a theoretical model of fundamental
particles by Professor Tony Skyrme of the
University of Birmingham in the 1960s.
This research, funded by the Leverhulme
Trust and the US Department of Energy,
demonstrates how purely theoretical
ideas in physics can lead to innovative
new technologies.
In a new study, published in Nature
Physics, the research team of UK-based
theorists and US-based experimentalists
has demonstrated a way of combining
www.intelligentdatacentres.com
multiple skyrmions together in structures
they call ‘skyrmion bags’, which allows
a far greater packing of information in
skyrmion systems.
Issue 04
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