Researchers from Tohoku University, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guangxi Normal University, Kyushu University and Japan Atomic Energy Agency have reported a significant breakthrough which could revolutionize next-generation electronics by enabling non-volatility, large-scale integration, low power consumption, high speed, and high reliability in spintronic devices.

Spintronic devices, such as magnetic random access memory (MRAM), utilize the magnetization direction of ferromagnetic materials for information storage and rely on spin current, a flow of spin angular momentum, for reading and writing data. Conventional semiconductor electronics have faced limitations in achieving these qualities. However, the emergence of three-terminal spintronic devices, which employ separate current paths for writing and reading information, presents a solution with reduced writing errors and increased writing speed. Nevertheless, the challenge of reducing energy consumption during information writing, specifically magnetization switching, remains a critical concern.

Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, the University of Konstanz and Tohoku University in Japan have increased the diffusion of magnetic whirls, so called skyrmions, by a factor of ten.

Science often does not simply consider the spin of an individual electron, but rather magnetic whirls composed of numerous spins. These whirls, called skyrmions, emerge in magnetic metallic thin layers and can be considered as two-dimensional quasi-particles. On the one hand, the whirls can be deliberately moved by applying a small electric current to the thin layers; on the other hand, they move randomly and extremely efficiently due to diffusion. The feasibility of creating a functional computer based on skyrmions was demonstrated by a team of researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), led by Professor Dr. Mathias Kläui, using an initial prototype. This prototype consisted of thin, stacked metallic layers, some only a few atomic layers thick.

Researchers from TU Delft and the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCAR) have teamed up to explore Van der Waals Heterostructures for Spintronics via a recent SPRINT grant. 

The goal of the collaboration is to combine the expertise of two labs: Prof. Herre Van der Zant at TU Delft;s group on fabricating heterostructures involving two-dimensional magnetic materials and Prof. Yara Galvão Gobato's group at UFSCAR on optical measurements on semiconductors.

A new study at BESSY II analyzes the formation of skyrmions in ferrimagnetic thin films of dysprosium and cobalt in real time and with high spatial resolution. This could be an important step towards characterizing suitable materials with skyrmions more precisely. 

Magnetic skyrmions are tiny vortices-like of magnetic spin textures that can, in principle, be used for spintronic devices. But currently it is still difficult to control and manipulate skyrmions at room temperature.

Researchers from Monash University in Australia have shown in their recent theoretical study that ‘trimming’ the edge-states of a topological insulator can yield a new class of materials featuring unconventional ‘two way’ edge transport.

The new material, a topological crystalline insulator (TCI) forms a promising addition to the family of topological materials and broadens the scope of materials with topologically nontrivial properties. Its distinctive reliance on symmetry also paves the way for novel techniques to manipulate edge transport, offering potential applications in future transistor devices. For example, ‘switching’ the TCI via an electric field that breaks the symmetry supporting the nontrivial band topology, thus suppressing the edge current.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge,  University of Manchester, University of Oxford,  Swansea University, Jilin University, University of Namur, University of Mons, Donostia International Physics Centre, University of Würzburg have developed a way to control the interaction of light and quantum 'spin' in organic semiconductors, that even works at room temperature.

The international team of researchers has found a way to use particles of light as a 'switch' that can connect and control the spin of electrons, making them behave like tiny magnets that could be used for quantum applications. The researchers designed modular molecular units connected by tiny 'bridges'. Shining a light on these bridges allowed electrons on opposite ends of the structure to connect to each other by aligning their spin states. Even after the bridge was removed, the electrons stayed connected through their aligned spins.

Researchers from Korea's Institute for Basic Science (IBS), China's National University of Defense Technology and Harvard University in the U.S have made a fascinating breakthrough that can potentially harness fluctuations in semiconductors caused by Random Telegraph Noise (RTN), a type of unwanted electronic noise that has long been a nuisance in electronic systems.

Led by Professor Lee Young Hee from IBS, the team reported that magnetic fluctuations and their gigantic RTN signals can be generated in a vdW-layered semiconductor by introducing vanadium in tungsten diselenide (V-WSe₂) as a minute magnetic dopant. 

Researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University and China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University have developed a coherent and controllable spin-optical laser based on a single atomic layer. This was enabled by coherent spin-dependent interactions between a single atomic layer and a laterally confined photonic spin lattice, the latter of which supports high-Q spin-valley states through the photonic Rashba-type spin splitting of a bound state in the continuum.

The team's achievement could pave the way towards studying coherent spin-dependent phenomena in both classical and quantum regimes, opening new horizons in fundamental research and optoelectronic devices exploiting both electron and photon spins.

Researchers from MIT and Tohoku University have reported a representative effect of the anomalous dynamics at play when an electric current is applied to a class of magnetic materials called non-collinear antiferromagnets. 

Non-collinear antiferromagnets have properties distinct from conventional magnetic materials—in traditional collinear magnets, the magnetic moments align in a collinear fashion. However, in non-collinear ones, the moments form finite angles between one another. Scientists describe these non-collinear arrangements as a single order parameter, the octupole moment, which has been demonstrated to be critical for determining the exotic properties of the materials.

Researchers from MIT, Princeton University and Politecnico di Milano have found a way to tune the spin density in diamonds by applying an external laser or microwave beam. These findings could open new possibilities for advanced quantum devices.

Spin defects make crystalline materials highly useful for quantum-based devices such as ultrasensitive quantum sensors, quantum memory devices, or systems for simulating the physics of quantum effects. Varying the spin density in semiconductors can lead to new properties in a material, but this density is usually fleeting and elusive, thus hard to measure and control locally. Now, the team of researchers has found a way to tune the spin density in diamonds, changing it by a factor of two, by applying an external laser or microwave beam.