TDK Corporation has announced that it has developed the world's first "Spin Photo Detector," a photo-spintronic conversion element combining optical, electronic, and magnetic elements that can respond at an ultra-high speed of 20 picoseconds (20 × 10⁻¹² s) using light with a wavelength of 800 nm ^[1] – more than 10X faster than conventional semiconductor-based photo detectors. 

This new device is expected to be a key driver for implementing photoelectric conversion technology that boosts data transmission and data processing speed, particularly in AI applications, while simultaneously reducing power consumption.

In a recent study, researchers have discovered antiferromagnetism in a real Quasicrystal (QC). The team was led by Ryuji Tamura from the Department of Materials Science and Technology at Tokyo University of Science (TUS), along with Takaki Abe, also from TUS, Taku J. Sato from Tohoku University, and Max Avdeev from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization and The University of Sydney.

Quasicrystals are solid materials that exhibit an intriguing atomic arrangement. Unlike regular crystals, in which atomic arrangements have an ordered repeating pattern, QCs display long-range atomic order that is not periodic. Due to this 'quasiperiodic' nature, QCs have unconventional symmetries that are absent in conventional crystals. Since their Nobel Prize-winning discovery, condensed matter physics researchers have dedicated immense attention toward QCs, attempting to both realize their unique quasiperiodic magnetic order and their possible applications in spintronics and magnetic refrigeration.

Flexible spintronics is a fascinating pathway towards applications in wearable devices and sheet-type sensors. For miniaturized strain sensors exploiting spintronics, the magnetoelasticity linking magnetism and lattice distortion is a vital property. This requires not only materials with significant magnetoresistance effects but also control over their magnetoelastic properties.

A schematic image of the crystal structure of Fe₄N. The iron nitride system was found to show both large magnetoresistance effects and tunable magnetoelastic properties. Image from: Communications Materials 

Now, researchers from Tohoku University, National Institute for Materials Science, Kyushu University and Kyoto Institute of Technology have systematically studied the magnetoelastic properties of Fe₄N and its substituted variants, Fe_4-xMn_xN and Fe_4-yCo_yN. These materials, composed of widely available elements, were examined for their potential in flexible spintronics. 

Researchers from Zhejiang University, Singapore University of Technology and Design  (SUTD), Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing Computational Science Research Center, Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR) and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology recently introduced a novel method to control electron spin using only an electric field. This could pave the way for the future development of ultra-compact, energy-efficient spintronic devices.

This work demonstrates how an emerging type of magnetic material, an altermagnetic bilayer, can host a novel mechanism called layer-spin locking, thus enabling all-electrical manipulation of spin currents at room temperature.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new computational approach to accurately model and predict complex spin structures called helimagnetic spin structures, using quantum mechanics calculations. 

“The helical spin structures in two-dimensional layered materials have been experimentally observed for over 40 years. It has been a longstanding challenge to predict them with precision,” said Kesong Yang, professor in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and senior author of the study. “The helical period in the layered compound extends up to 48 nanometers, making it extremely difficult to accurately calculate all the electron and spin interactions at this scale.”

The University of California, Riverside, according to reports, has been awarded nearly $4 million through the UC National Laboratory Fees Research Program to lead a major research initiative in antiferromagnetic spintronics. Over the next three years, the project will explore how antiferromagnetic materials can be used to push the boundaries of modern microelectronics.

“The semiconductor microelectronics industry is looking for new materials, new phenomena, and new mechanisms to sustain technological advances,” said Jing Shi, a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at UCR and the award’s principal investigator. “With co-principal investigators at UC San Diego, UC Davis, UCLA, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, we aim to cement the University of California’s leadership in this area and obtain extramural center and group funding in the near future.”

Researchers from Beihang University and Freie Universität Berlin have developed a spintronic THz emitter with a microscale stripe pattern that enables the modulation of chirality during THz wave generation. Unlike traditional THz sources that rely on external optical components, this emitter incorporates polarization tuning directly into its design, streamlining the technology and enhancing its capabilities.

The emitter comprises thin-film layers of tungsten, cobalt-iron-boron, and platinum. When exposed to ultrafast laser pulses, the material generates a spin current, which is converted into an electrical charge through the inverse spin Hall effect.

The data storage capacity of multi-terabyte hard drives is several million megabytes, but their data transfer rates are only a few hundred megabytes per second, due to their reliance on tiny magnetic structures. The development of memory devices that operate at picosecond timescales could speed data transfer and improve access to digital information. However, ultrafast control of magnetization states in magnetically ordered systems, like hard drives, is a challenge.

Researchers from Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and TU Dortmund University have attempted to remove speed restrictions in hard drives, by using short current pulses and spintronic effects. Instead of electrical pulses, the team used ultrashort terahertz (THz) light pulses to enable the readout of magnetic structures in just picoseconds.

Researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Cambridge, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, AMOLF and Diamond Light Source Ltd have created an organic semiconductor that forces electrons to move in a spiral pattern, which could improve the efficiency of OLED displays or power next-generation computing technologies such as spintronics and quantum computing.

The semiconductor they developed emits circularly polarized light—meaning the light carries information about the ‘left or right-handedness’ of electrons. The internal structure of most inorganic semiconductors, like silicon, is symmetrical, meaning electrons move through them without any preferred direction. But in nature, molecules often have a chiral (left- or right-handed) structure. Chirality plays an important role in biological processes like DNA formation, but it is a difficult phenomenon to harness and control in electronics.

UC Riverside has received a Collaborative Research and Training Award of nearly $4 million from the UC National Laboratory Fees Research Program to explore how antiferromagnetic spintronics can be used to advantage in advanced memory and computing. The three-year project aims to advance microelectronics using antiferromagnetic materials, an ultrafast spin-based technology.

“The semiconductor microelectronics industry is looking for new materials, new phenomena, and new mechanisms to sustain technological advances,” said Jing Shi, a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at UCR and the award’s principal investigator. “With co-principal investigators at UC San Diego, UC Davis, UCLA, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, we aim to cement the University of California’s leadership in this area and obtain extramural center and group funding in the near future.”