Multiferroics and antiferromagnets are materials of great fundamental interest and are key contenders for next generation electronic devices, where they promise new functionality and improved performance.
In a recent publication in the journal “Nature Materials”, a group of French researchers led by Prof. M. Viret was able to image and understand a novel type of chiral spin-textures occurring on BiFeO3’s domain-walls, which had never been observed before.
One of the challenge was that magnetism in these materials is extremely difficult to study due to the weak magnetic signals they usually generate. Using Qnami’s Quantilever MX, Prof. V. Jacques could overcome this limitation, confirm the results from the team’s simulations and validate their assumptions.
The result add a new member to the growing family of non-trivial chiral spin textures, and candidates for tomorrow’s spintronic devices.
The image shows domains at the surface of BiFeO3 (yellow and brown) and the resulting magnetic signature (blue to red scale) that could be measured using Quantilever MX.
Find out more about the work here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0516-z
