I will discuss topologically protected magnetic textures, such as skyrmions, half-skyrmions (merons), bimerons and their antiparticles, which constitute tiny whirls in the magnetic order. They are promising candidates as information carriers in next generation electronics, as they can be efficiently propelled at very high velocities employing current-induced spin torques [1]. First, I will talk about skyrmions [2] and bimerons [3] in ferromagnetic systems coupled to heavy metals or topological materials. Then I will show that antiferromagnets can also host versions of these textures, which have gained significant attention because of their potential for terahertz dynamics, deflection free motion
[4], and improved size scaling due to the absence of stray fields. Finally, I will demonstrate that topological spin textures, merons and antimerons, can be generated at room temperature and reversibly moved using electrical pulses in thin film CuMnAs, a semimetallic antiferromagnet that is a test-bed system for spintronic applications [5]. The electrical generation and manipulation of antiferromagnetic merons is a crucial step towards realizing the full potential of antiferromagnetic thin films as active components in high density, high speed magnetic memory devices.

[1] B. Göbel, I. Mertig, and O. A. Tretiakov, Physics Reports 895, 1 (2021).
[2] D. Kurebayashi and O. A. Tretiakov, Physical Review Research 4, 043105 (2022).
[3] B. Göbel, A. Mook, I. Mertig, and O. A. Tretiakov, Physical Review B 99, 060407(R) (2019).
[4] J. Barker and O. A. Tretiakov, Physical Review Letters 116, 147203 (2016).
[5] O. J. Amin, S. F. Poole, S. Reimers, L. X. Barton, F. Maccherozzi, S. S. Dhesi, V. Novak, F. Krızek, J. S. Chauhan, R. P. Campion, A. W. Rushforth, T. Jungwirth, O. A. Tretiakov, K. W. Edmonds, and P. Wadley, Nature Nanotechnology, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01386-3 (2023).