Reversible Skyrmion Logic System

Magnetic skyrmions demonstrate exceptional potential as information carriers for next-generation computing systems in light of their topological stability, non-volatility, and small size. However, previous proposals for using skyrmions in logical computing systems have failed to take full advantage of the capabilities of skyrmions, and the lack of a cascading mechanism prevents their use in large-scale circuits. Here we propose a reversible skyrmion logic system with which we demonstrate a direct cascading mechanism, enabling a large-scale reversible skyrmion computing system [1]. This reversible computing system leverages the rich physics of magnetic skyrmions, including the spin-Hall effect, skyrmion-Hall effect, skyrmion-skyrmion repulsion, repulsion between skyrmions and the track boundaries, and electrical current-control of notch depinning. Furthermore, this proposed skyrmion logic increases the power efficiency by implementing the concept of reversible computing and eliminating skyrmion generation and destruction. Several Boolean logic functions and a cascaded full adder circuit are demonstrated to prove the feasibility of the proposed skyrmion logic system.

[1] M. Chauwin, et al., Skyrmion Logic System for Large-Scale Reversible Computation, Phys. Rev. Appl., 2019.