Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles and the U.S. Energy Department’s Argonne National Laboratory have developed a method for creating magnetic skyrmion bubbles at room temperature. Skyrmions are tiny magnetic islands that form in certain materials, and are a possible option to create more energy-efficient and compact electronics.

The scientists say they have found a way to create these skyrmions with simple equipment and common materials. They found that they could prod When electric current is applied to the metal layers, the stripes (left) stretched through the channel and broke into tiny skyrmion bubbles (right). Image credit: Argonne National Laboratorythese skyrmions to move using electric currents, and realized they could use them to represent 1s and 0s in computer memory.

“Our new method is the simplest way to generate skyrmion bubbles thus far,” says Argonne postdoctoral researcher Wanjun Jiang, one author of the study.

The research team uses a geometric structure to “blow” the bubbles into shape in a very thin film. They worked at the Center for Nanoscale Materials to build a constricted wire out of a three-layered structure, where a layer of magnetic material was sandwiched between tantalum and tantalum-oxide layers.

“These aren’t exotic materials—they’re widely used already in the magnetics industry,” says Argonne materials scientist Axel Hoffmann, a second author of the paper. The electric current needed to move the skyrmions is much lower than what is used in other experimental memory alternatives, such as racetrack memory, he says.

The study, “Blowing Magnetic Skyrmion Bubbles,” was published in Science Express.