Topological Spin Textures: Fundamentals and Future Horizons

Unlike conventional collinear magnetic orders such as ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism, non-collinear spin orderings in magnetic materials give rise to topological configurations such as domain walls, vortices, skyrmions, etc. Among them, skyrmions observed in chiral magnets and magnetic multilayers have attracted great attention in the past decade. Owing to their topological nature, skyrmions have extra stability and novel spin dynamics, which give out promises of their applications in racetrack memory, magnetic tunneling junction, and neuromorphic computing. In this talk, I will give a pedagogical introduction on the formation, dynamics and charge/spin transports of skyrmions. Furthermore, skyrmions can be generalized to three-dimensions. A plethora of 3D skyrmionic textures have been observed, such as target skyrmions, skyrmion bundles, and an exotic texture called hopfions. These studies could stimulate the development of 3D spintronics. Challenges including 3D magnetic reconstruction and magnetic simulations will be addressed.