Skyrmions are nanoscale, exotic magnetic swirls which are a promising candidate material for future low energy cost digital data storage devices. An analytical theory, which describes their size and speed in thin films, will provide a valuable tool for many material scientists and engineers to develop real life applications. This project aims to reach a refined the solution for the size of skyrmions and beyond that will calculate for the speed of a skyrmion. The speed of a skyrmion can be found using the Thiele equation, which treats a skyrmion as a single particle moving through the thin film due to an applied current or film.
The University of Newcastle
Ellen Lu is an undergraduate student at the University of Newcastle, and she is at the end of third year. She has enrolled in a maths and physics double degree. Her research interests are applied maths, mathematical physics and theoretical physics. She accomplished a first-year summer scholarship project with the UoM mathematical faculty on group theory—rotational symmetry group of tetrahedron & rotation matrix. She recently finished a third-year undergraduate research project on an analytic solution and the theory of the size and shape of skyrmions as a function of magnetic properties. She is looking forward to digging deeper into this topic in areas such as the speed of skyrmions and the stray field profile of skyrmions.