ChaoSpin was a frontier research project at the interface between nanomagnetism, spintronics, and nonlinear dynamics. The project was led by Dr. Myoung-Woo Yoo as part of his Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship that ran from 1 February 2018 to 31 January 2020.
ChaoSpin was motivated by the premise that the rich behaviour of nonlinear systems, in particular chaos, can be leveraged for alternative computing paradigms. The primary objective was to establish the utility and feasibility of the nanocontact vortex oscillator, a nanoscale spintronic device, as a universal building block for chaos-based information processing by demonstrating key technological functionalities, such as random number generation and communication using symbolic dynamics. The underlying idea is that the complexity required for computation and possible cognitive functions can be generated within a single system, without the need of a complex array of interconnected subsystems. The project built upon the NOMADE group’s discovery of novel commensurate and chaotic phases in the nanocontact vortex oscillator.
The project objectives were defined by three scientific questions related to magnetic vortex dynamics on the nanoscale, namely:
- Can the chaotic state be detected experimentally?
- How does the chaotic state respond to external forcing?
- Can the chaotic state be exploited for information processing?
These questions were addressed by combining the use of high-performance simulation tools and quantitative theories with state-of- the-art experiments involving high-frequency electrical characterisation.
This project has funded by the Horizon2020 Research Framework Programme of the European Commission under contract no. 751344.