2D Spintronics: Skyrmions and beyond

The current electronics industry is facing challenges both from the fundamental physics limit of silicon on the small scale, and the new demand for big-data applications on the large scale. Spintronics, utilizing spin degree of freedom, is a promising for future beyond-CMOS devices and systems, thanks to their low power consumption, nonvolatility, and easy 3D integration. The emerging 2D magnets can preserve single-phase magnetism even in monolayer (~0.8 nm) limits, and thus they are promising to further scale down devices. They have a sharp interface and atomically thin nature, promising for designer quantum devices and more functionalities (e.g. stacking order, twist angle, thickness, and voltage control).

In this talk, I will discuss 2D spintronics with quantum devices on skyrmions, and their potential applications. I will begin by presenting my observations of real-space topological spin textures - magnetic skyrmions, in 2D devices. This work represents the first report of skyrmion lattice imaging in 2D layered magnets. Building on this, I will present my findings on the vertical imprinting of skyrmions onto neighboring layers in a 2D ferromagnet/2D ferromagnet system, demonstrating new functionality for skyrmion-based spintronics. In addition, future work on quantum devices is motivated that would focus on energy-efficient control in magnetism, for neuromorphic and quantum computing.