June 2017

Researchers from Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley synthesized a new 2D topological insulator material, called 1T’-WTe2. In such a material the flow of electrons is completely linked to the direction of their spin, and is limited to the edge of the material.

This material excites the scientists as they see great spintronics applications of 2D topological insulators. The researchers now aim to synthesize larger samples and find out the way to selectively adjust and emphasize particular characteristics

Researchers from the University of Texas in Dallas developed an all-carbon spin logic design for a switch that could be the basis of carbon spin logic devices.

The design is based on graphene nanoribbons and carbon nanotubes, which in conjunction can be used to create cascaded logic gates that are not physically linked. The communication between the gates happens via an electromagnetic wave (and does not use any physical movement of electrons), it is anticipated that communication will be much quicker - with the potential for terahertz clock speeds. The size of these logic gates will be much smaller than silicon based gates.

Researchers from Brown University in collaboration with researchers from Japan developed a way to induce an inverted magnetocapacitance effect - this is a new phenomenon that could benefit future spintronics devices. The researchers say that Magnetocapcitos could be useful to make magnetic sensors and adding an inverse effect may allow for greater design freedom.

To achieve this effect, the researchers used different materials to build a quantum tunneling junction. The image above shows two electrodes - made from Fe₃O₄ and Fe. The patterns indicate that Fe₃O₄ has the inverse spinel structure with the same crystal orientation of the MgO substrate, while Fe takes polycrystalline structure.