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Yu Lab
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A lab that uses electron microscopy to observe and study magnetic vortices inside materials.
AboutAbout the lab
Directly seeing magnetic vortices with an electron microscope.
The Yu Lab is the Electronic States Microscopy Research Team at RIKEN, led by Project Professor Yu of the School of Science at Institute of Science Tokyo.
Using electron microscopes capable of atomic-level resolution, the lab observes in real space the structure and dynamics of magnetic vortices such as skyrmions.
Targeting high-temperature superconductors, polar ferromagnets, thin-film interfaces, and more, it also examines electronic states, elemental distributions, and structural changes.
Through this research, the lab aims to elucidate emergent phenomena that occur in a variety of materials.
Key terms
- Skyrmion
- A structure in which electron spins (the orientations of tiny magnets) inside a material are arranged like a vortex. It behaves like a stable particle.
- Lorentz Electron Microscope
- An electron microscope that images magnetic patterns inside a material by using the property that electron beams are bent by magnetism
- Emergent Phenomena
- The appearance of new properties, unpredictable from the properties of the individual constituents, when many electrons and other particles come together
NewsLab news
Successful demonstration of racetrack-type antiskyrmion operation (press release)
Team Leader Yu and Center Director Tokura won the 20th Leo Esaki Prize
Interconversion of skyrmions and antiskyrmions by heat flow (press release)
ResearchResearch themes
Using electron microscopes with atomic-level spatial resolution, the lab observes magnetic structures such as skyrmions and their dynamics in real space. Through nanoscale studies of electronic states, it aims to elucidate emergent phenomena that occur in diverse materials.
*Illustrative imageRendering Magnetic Vortices in 3D
The lab developed an electron tomography method that can observe three-dimensional spin structures at cryogenic temperatures with nanometer-scale detail. It uses the method to visualize three-dimensional structures such as twisted skyrmion strings.
*Illustrative imageMoving Confined Antiskyrmions with Electric Current
Combining Lorentz electron microscopy with simulation, the lab studied how antiskyrmions confined in stripe-shaped magnetic domains move under electric current.
*Illustrative imageSwitching Magnetic Structures with Heat Flow
By applying heat flow to a magnet in which skyrmions and antiskyrmions can be created at room temperature, the lab succeeded in changing helical magnetic structures and converting skyrmions into antiskyrmions.
*Illustrative image3D Observation of Antiskyrmions and Skyrmion Strings
The lab developed a method that reconstructs three-dimensional images from electron microscope images taken from many directions with the sample tilted. It used the method to observe the three-dimensional magnetic structures of deformed skyrmion strings and antiskyrmions.
MembersFaculty
The Yu Lab (Electronic States Microscopy Research Team) consists of a team director, special postdoctoral researchers, technical staff, and visiting researchers.As of 2025
- Project ProfessorXiuzhen Yu
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Neel skyrmion coneplot” Forschungszentrum Jülich / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Rendering Magnetic Vortices in 3D: “Block skyrmion” Nitish Mathur, Matthew J. Stolt, and Song Jina / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Moving Confined Antiskyrmions with Electric Current: “Von Karman vortices off Rishiri Island, Japan” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
- Switching Magnetic Structures with Heat Flow: “Schlieren-color-candle-plume” Settles1 / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- 3D Observation of Antiskyrmions and Skyrmion Strings: “Transmission Electron Microscope Kemira” kallerna / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (村上研究室): “Horseshoe Magnetic Filings (Flipped 180)” Noguarde / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (平原研究室): “Graphite-layers-side-3D-balls” Benjah-bmm27 / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (佐藤研究室): “Femtosecond Laser and Pulse Compressor - Optics Lab - INRIM” Giorgio Brida from Torino, Italy / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (今井研究室): “Scanning tunneling microscope (STM) 250 nm by 250 nm image of one-atom-thick silver islands grown on palladium (111) surface” Ponor / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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