Fig. 4
Spintronic devices with defects guiding the skyrmion motion. a, b Non-collinear regions (blue area) defining pinning or repulsion depending on the chemical nature of the impurities. A pinning impurity can lock a skyrmion within the blue region while a repulsive impurity can pin a large skyrmion on the core region, which is a local minimum energy. c–e Combination of different energy-landscapes to engineer spintronics devices. c Repulsive lanes (blue) can confine the motion of skyrmions in a desired direction. d Pinning (red) usually hinders skyrmion mobility and can be used to decelerate them. e Pinning lanes (red) can be a medium for skyrmions motion
