Perspective: magnetic skyrmions-overview of recent progress in an active research field

Abstract

Within a decade, the field of magnetic skyrmionics has developed from a niche prediction to a huge and active research field. not only do magnetic skyrmions magnetic whirls with a unique topology reveal fundamentally new physics, but they have also risen to prominence as up-and-coming candidates for next-generation high-density efficient information encoding. within a few years, it has been possible to efficiently create, manipulate, and destroy nanometer-size skyrmions in device compatible materials at room-temperature by all electrical means. despite the incredibly rapid progress, several challenges still remain to obtain fully functional and competitive skyrmion devices, as discussed in this perspective article with a focus on recent results.