Low Dimensional Topological Magnetic and Multiferroic Materials

Dear Colleagues, 

Low-dimension topological materials have aroused growing and intensive research interest in recent years due to their high theoretical efficiency and potential applications in modern technology. Topological spin textures in magnetic materials, such as skyrmions and vortices, are believed to be mainly induced by Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interactions, which are attributed to the inversion symmetry breaking at the surfaces or interfaces. Combined with strong spin–orbit couplings, they can be generated, manipulated, deleted, or driven by applied magnetic fields and/or electric spin currents. However, skyrmions in insulators cannot be manipulated by the latter means. Fortunately, there exist magneto–electric couplings in insulating multiferroic materials, which makes it possible to control spin textures by means of electric fields.  In addition, the coexisting magnetic and ferroelectric orders in these materials are promising for applications in microelectronics and optoelectronics.

Though extensive theoretical and experimental work has been devoted to studying multiferroic materials, many problems are yet to be solved, such as the fundamental interactions that may be involved in skyrmion formation, the efficient means of manipulating skyrmions, and the feasible measures for driving them efficiently along racetracks for the purpose of practical applications.  On the other hand, though various theoretical models have been proposed to describe the magnetic and ferroelectric orders coexisting in multiferroic materials,  they still need to be verified by experiments and quantitative theoretical analyses. Moreover, topological magnetic and ferroelectric textures are to be characterized by theoretical models.    

This Special Issue aims to address the fundamental physics and technologies of the above topological materials.

Theoretical, numerical, and experimental studies will be included. Original research, review articles, and perspectives are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Guoping Zhao
Dr. Yan Zhou
Dr. Hao Wu
Guest Editors

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