In a recent study led by Professor Michael Shatruk of Florida State University’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, researchers have demonstrated a new way to design magnetic materials by deliberately pushing chemical and structural boundaries. By combining compounds that are chemically similar but structurally incompatible, the team created a crystalline material with unconventional magnetic behavior, offering new insight into how complex spin patterns can be engineered rather than discovered by chance.
Wang, Y., Campbell, I., Tener, Z. P., Clark, J. K., Graterol, J., Rogalev, A., Wilhelm, F., Zhang, H., Long, Y., Dronskowski, R., Wang, X., & Shatruk, M. (2025). Skyrmion-like Spin Textures Emerging in the Material Derived from Structural Frustration. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 147(47), 43550–43559. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c12764
Magnetism at the atomic level arises from electron spin, which can be thought of as a tiny directional magnetic field associated with each atom. In conventional magnetic materials, these spins align in relatively simple patterns, producing familiar ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic behavior used in everyday technologies such as hard drives and electronic sensors. More complex arrangements, however, can emerge when competing interactions prevent spins from settling into a single stable configuration.
Professor Michael Shatruk of Florida State University’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry stated,
“Traditionally, physicists will hunt for known materials that already exhibit the symmetry they’re seeking and measure their properties. But that limits the range of possibilities. We’re trying to develop a predictive ability to say, If we add these two things together, we’ll form a completely new material with these desired properties.'”
The Florida State team focused on this idea of competition, known as frustration, at the chemical and structural level. They combined two intermetallic compounds containing manganese and cobalt, differing only in whether germanium or arsenic occupied one position in the crystal lattice. While the elements sit next to each other in the periodic table, the resulting compounds normally adopt different crystal symmetries. When merged, this mismatch destabilized both structures and forced the material into a new arrangement altogether.
This structural tension carried over into the magnetic behavior. Measurements showed that instead of aligning uniformly, the atomic spins formed repeating swirling patterns, known as cycloidal or skyrmion-like spin textures. These textures are of particular interest because they represent stable, nanoscale magnetic structures that can be moved with very low energy input, a property that has been widely studied in condensed matter physics over the past decade.
To confirm the presence and arrangement of these spin textures, the researchers relied on single-crystal neutron diffraction experiments carried out at a national neutron scattering facility. Advances in data processing and analysis, including newer computational tools, allowed the team to resolve the magnetic structure with a level of detail that was previously difficult to achieve for such complex systems.
What distinguishes this work from earlier skyrmion research is the design strategy. Much of the previous effort in this field has focused on identifying existing materials that naturally host exotic spin textures. In contrast, the Florida State study demonstrates that it is possible to induce these behaviors by design, using chemical proximity and structural competition as guiding principles. This shifts the emphasis from searching for rare materials to creating them intentionally.
From an engineering standpoint, the implications are significant. Skyrmion-like magnetic structures are being explored for next-generation data storage, where information density and energy efficiency are critical constraints. Because these magnetic textures can be manipulated using relatively small electrical currents, they also hold promise for reducing power consumption in large-scale computing systems.
The findings may also be relevant to quantum information research, where robust magnetic states are being investigated as potential platforms for fault-tolerant architectures. Materials that naturally support complex and stable spin arrangements could help protect fragile quantum information from environmental noise, an ongoing challenge in the field.
While the material developed in this study has so far been produced only at laboratory scale, the underlying concept may extend to other intermetallic systems and oxide materials that are easier to synthesize in larger quantities. By expanding the range of chemical “ingredients” that can be used to generate skyrmion-like behavior, the approach could also improve material availability and reduce reliance on rare or difficult-to-process compounds.
Rather than overturning existing models of magnetism, the work adds an important layer to them. It shows that magnetic behavior can be tuned by carefully balancing chemical similarity and structural incompatibility, opening a broader design space for materials engineers. As interest grows in low-power electronics and advanced magnetic technologies, strategies that link chemical design directly to functional behavior are likely to become increasingly important.
Adrian graduated with a Masters Degree (1st Class Honours) in Chemical Engineering from Chester University along with Harris. His master’s research aimed to develop a standardadised clean water oxygenation transfer procedure to test bubble diffusers that are currently used in the wastewater industry commercial market. He has also undergone placments in both US and China primarely focused within the R&D department and is an associate member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE).
