Hans-Benjamin Braun
Topological defects, chirality and spin currents in low dimensional magnetism.
Topological defects such as domain walls and skyrmions have recently gained prominence as they owe their stability to their robustness against continuous deformations, similar to knots in a rope. Their stability renders them potentially useful for data storage applications similarly to other prominent topological defects such as domain walls in racetrack type memories. In view of the continuous demand of ever-increasing storage density it is important to study skyrmion-type defects on ever-decreasing length scales. Therefore it is necessary to understand the mechanisms which ensure the stability of skyrmions when their size becomes comparable to the crystal lattice and when thermal fluctuations are important. Finally I will discuss how quantum fluctuations endow solitons with a chirality which leads to spin currents that can be detected experimentally.