Effects of geometry on skyrmion pinning and operation symmetry

Magnetic skyrmions are stable spin configurations which originate from chiral interactions. Their topologically protected nature confers upon them a high stability while still retaining their very small size. These highly desirable characteristics have attracted significant scientific interest in the creation of a skyrmion-based memory device. However, skyrmions are also highly resistant to the conventional pinning used in domain-wall memory devices [1] as they are known to skirt around the pinning sites in the magnetic film that they reside on. This poses a significant problem as the skyrmion´s position becomes less predictable [2]. Furthermore, the movement of particle-like magnetic skyrmions have an additional degree of freedom on a nanowire that has yet to be investigated in detail.