Generation of stable skyrmion lattices and displacement of trains of individual skyrmions along a magnetic racetrack by short current pulses are demonstrated at room temperature in ultrathin metallic ferromagnets.

Nanoscale magnetic devices play a key role in modern technologies but current applications involve only 2D structures like magnetic discs. Here the authors review recent progress in the fabrication and understanding of 3D magnetic nanostructures, enabling more diverse functionalities.

Building upon the success and relevance of the 2014 Magnetism Roadmap, this 2017 Magnetism Roadmap edition follows a similar general layout, even if its focus is naturally shifted, and a different group of experts and, thus, viewpoints are being collected and presented. More importantly, key developments have changed the research landscape in very relevant ways, so that a novel view onto some of the most crucial developments is warranted, and thus, this 2017 Magnetism Roadmap article is a timely endeavour. The change in landscape is hereby not exclusively scientific, but also reflects the magnetism related industrial application portfolio. Specifically, Hard Disk Drive technology, which still dominates digital storage and will continue to do so for many years, if not decades, has now limited its footprint in the scientific Topical Review

Liquid reconfigurable ferromagnetic materials: Ferromagnetic materials show a permanent magnetic dipole, whereas superparamagnetic ones only show magnetic properties under an applied field. Some materials, like ferrofluids, show liquid-like behavior but do not retain their magnetization in the absence of an applied field. Liu et al. show remnant magnetization of otherwise superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles at an oil-water interface of emulsion droplets (see the Perspective by Dreyfus). The permanent magnetization could be controlled by coupling and uncoupling the magnetization of individual nanoparticles, making it possible to “write and erase” shapes of the droplets or to elongate them into cylinders. Science , this issue p. 264 ; see also p. 219

Among topological solitons, magnetic skyrmions are two-dimensional particle-like objects with a continuous winding of the magnetization, and magnetic Hopfions are three-dimensional objects that can be formed from a closed loop of twisted skyrmion strings. Theoretical models suggest that magnetic Hopfions can be stabilized in frustrated or chiral magnetic systems, and target skymions can be transformed into Hopfions by adapting their perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, but their experimental verification has been elusive so far. Here, we present an experimental study of magnetic Hopfions that are created in Ir/Co/Pt multilayers shaped into nanoscale disks, known to host target skyrmions. To characterize three-dimensional spin textures that distinguish Hopfions from target skyrmions magnetic images are recorded with surface-sensitive X-ray photoemission electron microscopy and bulk-sensitive soft X-ray transmission microscopy using element-specific X-ray magnetic circular dichroism effects as magnetic contrast. These results could stimulate further investigations of Hopfions and their potential application in three-dimensional spintronics devices.

The topological nature of magnetic skyrmions leads to extraordinary properties that provide new insights into fundamental problems of magnetism and exciting potentials for novel magnetic technologies. Prerequisite are systems exhibiting skyrmion lattices at ambient conditions, which have been elusive so far. Here, we demonstrate the realization of artificial Bloch skyrmion lattices over extended areas in their ground state at room temperature by patterning asymmetric magnetic nanodots with controlled circularity on an underlayer with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). Polarity is controlled by a tailored magnetic field sequence and demonstrated in magnetometry measurements. The vortex structure is imprinted from the dots into the interfacial region of the underlayer via suppression of the PMA by a critical ion-irradiation step. The imprinted skyrmion lattices are identified directly with polarized neutron reflectometry and confirmed by magnetoresistance measurements. Our results demonstrate an exciting platform to explore room-temperature ground-state skyrmion lattices.