When order gives way to chaos—the turbulent birth of magnetic nanovortices

Magnetic switching processes are considered a prime example of controllable physics at the nanometer scale: in certain thin-film systems, a short electrical current pulse is sufficient to reverse the magnetization in a targeted way. The underlying effect is the so-called spin–orbit torque: the current exerts a force on the magnetic moments in the material and can thus flip them in a controlled manner. This effect is expected to enable new data storage and computing architectures in the future.