Magnetism in curved geometries

While conventionally magnetic films and structures are fabricated on flat surfaces, the topology of curved surfaces has only recently started to be explored and leads to new fundamental physics as well as applied device ideas. In particular, novel effects occur when the magnetization is modulated by curvature that has major implications on the spin statics and dynamics due to topological constraints.
Advances in this novel field solely rely on the understanding of the fundamentals behind the modifications of magnetic responses of 3D-curved magnetic thin films. The lack of an inversion symmetry and the emergence of a curvature induced effective anisotropy and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction are characteristic of curved surfaces, leading to curvature-driven magnetochiral effects and topologically induced magnetization patterning [1]. In addition to these rich physics, the application potential of 3D-shaped objects is currently being explored as spin filters, magnetic field sensorics and memory devices.
To this end, the initially fundamental topic of magnetism in curved geometries strongly benefited from the input of the application-oriented community, which among others explores the mechanical shapeability of curved magnetic thin films. These activities resulted in the development of shapeable magnetoelectronics [2] - spintronics on flexible, bendable and stretchable surfaces.
[1] Streubel et al., J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. (Topical Review) 49, 363001 (2016).
[2] Makarov et al., Appl. Phys. Rev. (Focused Review) 3, 011101 (2016).