July 2017

Researchers from France, the US and Japan a spintronics-based oscillator that can mimic the behavior of neurons. A nano-neuron could be used to create new kind of chips that mimic the brain's computational style.

The spintronics oscillator is a small cylinder composed of stacked magnets separated by an insulating, non-magnetic, barrier. This design enabled the fabrication of a nano-neuron that is capable of recognizing an input signal, which was in this case a spoken digit (0–9) pronounced by different speakers, with a success rate of 99.6%. This result is on a par with other state-of-the-art technologies.

Researchers from the University of Würzburg developed a new room-temperature 2D topological insulator material that is promising for spintronics applications.

To create this material, the researchers used a single-sheet of bismuth atomsdeposited on a silicon carbide substrate. The silicon carbide structures causes the bismuth atoms to arrange in a honeycomb structure - which resembles the structure of graphene films. The researchers call their new material "bismuthene".

Researchers from Chalmers University developed a new graphene-based room-temperature spin field-effect transistor (G-FET).

As part of the research, it was demonstrated that the spin characteristics of graphene can be electrically regulated in a controlled way, even at an ambient temperature. This structure is not only useful to make spin-logic devices - it can also be used to integrate device-level magnetic memory (MRAM) elements.

Researcherrs from Likoping University in Sweden demonstrated a method to generate and manipulate the surface spin current in topological insulators.

The researchers used a combination of a topological insulator (Bismuth Telluride, Bi2Te3) and a regular GaAs semiconductor. The electrons were generated with the same spin in the GaAs using polarized light. The electrons were then transferred to the TI.