Skyrmions are magnetic “whirlwinds” in materials. They are stable, very small (micro- to nanometers) and can be moved using a very small electric current. This makes them potential candidates for future electronic devices including in quantum technology. However, to utilize the skyrmions in devices, there are some challenges which needs to be resolved.

One of these, is that the skyrmions sometimes get stuck. This makes the motion unpredictable, which is not compatible with their use in devices. Since skyrmions are very small magnetic objects, only a few microscopy techniques can image them, and even fewer enable us to study the reason why they get stuck in the material.

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is an instrument which can study both crystal structure, chemical composition and magnetic fields in materials, at nanometer length scales. This makes the TEM well-suited for studying skyrmions. However, there has not been studies on why the skyrmions gets stuck. To achieve this, one needs to apply an electric current on the skyrmions while inside the TEM.

The goal of this project is to develop a method to make skyrmions move inside the TEM, by applying electric currents. We will use this to study why the skyrmions get stuck: is it the crystal structure, chemical composition or something else?