Reconfigurable Skyrmion Logic Gates

Magnetic
skyrmion, a nanosized spin texture with topological property,
has become an area of significant interest due to the scientific insight
that it can provide and also its potential impact on applications
such as ultra-low-energy and ultra-high-density logic gates. In the
quest for the reconfiguration of single logic device and the implementation
of the complete logic functions, a novel reconfigurable skyrmion logic
(RSL) is proposed and verified by micromagnetic simulations. Logic
functions including AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, XOR, and XNOR are implemented
in the ferromagnetic (FM) nanotrack by virtue of various effects including
spin orbit torque, skyrmion Hall effect, skyrmion–edge repulsions,
and skyrmion–skyrmion collision. Different logic functions
can be selected in an RSL by applying voltage to specific region(s)
of the device, changing the local anisotropy energy of FM film. Material
properties and geometrical scaling studies suggest RSL gates fit for
energy-efficient computing as well as provide the guidelines for the
design and optimization of this new logic family.