FOM awards 1.6 M€ to Skyrmion programme of Maxim Mostovoy

On November 21st, 2016, FOM awarded a total of 15.1 M€ to seven new research programmes within the FOM Free programme. Three of the awarded programmes are coordinated by researchers from the University Groningen.

Skyrmionics: Towards new magnetic skyrmions and topological memory

Symmetry and topology serve as the unifying themes for different branches of natural science. One prominent example is a topological soliton, called skyrmion, which emerges in a variety of physical contexts. Magnetic skyrmions recently discovered in chiral magnets are fundamentally interesting because their topological spin structure gives rise to effective electromagnetic fields acting on electrons and magnons. Zernike Institute researcher Prof. Maxim Mostovoy, together with colleagues from Groningen and Delft, is aiming to study a new class of materials that can host magnetic skyrmions with unusual physical properties The ultimate goal of this programme is the electric control of skyrmion dynamics. This programme brings together theoretically guided materials synthesis and cutting edge experiments.

Maxim Mostovoy is associate Professor for Theory of Condensed Matter. He studied Physics at the Novosibirsk State University (Russia) and obtained his PhD from the University of Groningen in 1998 for his work on “Solitons and Instantons in (Spin-)Peierls systems”. In 2004 Mostovoy moved as visiting scientist to the Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Stuttgart, Germany. In 2005 he returned to the University of Groningen. Throughout his career Mostovoy received several scholarships: he was visiting fellow at Cambridge University and Trinity College (2003), Mercator Professor at the University of Cologne (2005-2006), Visiting Scientist at the Hahn-Meitner Institute (2007), Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Maryland (2010-2013), Invited Professor at the University of Caen (2011-2012), Velux Professor at the International Niels Bohr Academy (2013), Geoffrey Gordon Professor at the University of New South Wales (2015) and is visiting Professor at RIKEN since 2010.