Paper SP+2D+AS+NS+SS-MoA4
Switching Handedness of Chiral Solitons Under Z₄ Topology

Monday, November 7, 2016, 2:40 pm, Room 104A

Chirality is a ubiquitous and interesting property of asymmetry in many fields ranging from biology, chemistry to physics. Because of its topologically distinct nature, such chiral objects in condensed matter are often topologically excited states, which are protected by system’s topology and can be used to carry information robustly against external perturbations. For instance, nanoscale magnetic skyrmions, spatially localized chiral spin texture with particle-like properties in ferromagnets, have been investigated intensively as topological information carriers for next generation spintronic devices. However, logic operations using topological excitations such as skyrmions are only conceptually proposed. On the other hand, chiral solitons are recently discovered as the topologically protected edge states of one-dimensional Z₄ topological insulators [1,2], which can be exploited as topological information carriers in electronic system. In this talk, I show experimentally and directly that switching between solitons with different chirality is possible by merging them with achiral solitons [3]. I will also show that this chiral switching corresponds to the realization of topological addition of the Z₄ topological number or chirality. With their distinct topologically protected chirality, chiral solitons could uniquely be applied for robust multilevel information storage and logic operation by storing, carrying, and switching three differently topological bits of information.

[1] T.-H. Kim and H. W. Yeom, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 246802 (2012).

[2] S. Cheon, T.-H. Kim, S.-H. Lee, and H. W. Yeom, Science 350, 182 (2015).

[3] T.-H. Kim, S. Cheon, and H. W. Yeom, submitted (2016).