July 2025

Researchers at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Czech Republic's University of Chemistry and Technology have developed a method for combining magnetic elements with semiconductors. 

The team demonstrated the ability to produce semiconductor materials containing up to 50% magnetic atoms, whereas current methods are often limited to a concentration of magnetic atoms no greater than 5%. Using their process, the scientists created a library of more than 20 new materials that combined magnetic elements such as cobalt, manganese and iron with a variety of semiconductors. 

Researchers at The University of Osaka have developed a new program, “postw90-spin,” that enables high-precision calculations of a novel performance indicator for the spin Hall effect, a phenomenon crucial for developing energy-efficient and high-speed next-generation magnetic memory devices. 

This achievement addresses a long-standing challenge in spintronics research by providing a definitive measure of the spin Hall effect, overcoming ambiguities associated with traditional metrics.

Researchers at Columbia University and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory recently reported a new mechanism that enables the spin-selective transport of charge carriers in an atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenide, namely tungsten diselenide (WSe₂). Their work could open new possibilities for the development of compact and energy-efficient components for spintronic devices.

"Spin is a fundamental quantum property of electrons, which—in a simplified picture—can be thought of like a tiny internal compass needle pointing either 'up' or 'down,'" said En-Min Shih, first author of the paper. "Spin lies at the heart of magnetism and plays a crucial role in many technologies. For example, in a hard disk drive, information is stored based on whether the magnetization of nanoscale regions points up or down. In this way, you can 'write' information by forcing the spins in a certain region to order along a particular direction, but how do you 'read' the information?". One common approach to "reading" the information stored in spintronic devices entails measuring how easily electrical current passes through magnetized regions in a material. This approach relies on the fact that electrical current is carried by moving electrons, which also have spin.

Researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich, University of Duisburg-Essen, Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Johannes Kepler University Linz and University of California Davis have created the first experimentally verified two-dimensional half metal—a material that conducts electricity using electrons of just one spin type: either "spin-up" or "spin-down." 

Their work could mark a milestone in the quest for materials enabling energy-efficient spintronic that go beyond conventional electronics.

A team of University of Minnesota researchers recently demonstrated a more efficient way to control magnetization in tiny electronic devices using a material called Ni₄W–a combination of nickel and tungsten. 

The team found that this low-symmetry material produces powerful spin-orbit torque (SOT)—a key mechanism for manipulating magnetism in next-generation memory and logic technologies.

A team of scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), Pennsylvania State University (U.S.A.), and the University of Manchester (UK) has developed a new way to detect subtle magnetic signals in common metals like copper, gold, and aluminium - using nothing more than light and a clever technique. Their research could pave the way for advances in many fields, from smartphones to quantum computing.

For over a century, scientists have known that electric currents bend in a magnetic field - a phenomenon known as the Hall effect. In magnetic materials like iron, this effect is strong and well understood. But in ordinary, non-magnetic metals like copper or gold, the effect is much weaker. In theory, a related phenomenon - the optical Hall effect - should help scientists visualize how electrons behave when light and magnetic fields interact. But at visible wavelengths, this effect has remained far too subtle to detect. The scientific world has long since believed in its existence, but lacked the tools to measure it.

Researchers from Cornell University, Columbia University and Japan's National Institute for Materials Science have demonstrated direct electrical detection of antiferromagnetic resonance in structures on the few-micrometer scale using spin-filter tunneling in PtTe₂/bilayer CrSBr/graphite junctions in which the tunnel barrier is the van der Waals antiferromagnet CrSBr. 

Ferromagnetic materials have been in use in technologies like magnetic hard drives, magnetic random access memories and oscillators for many years. But antiferromagnetic materials, if only they could be harnessed, hold even greater potential: ultra-fast information transfer and communications at much higher frequencies. Now, the researchers' recent work is a step in that direction. Their work could be beneficial for both detecting and controlling the motion of spins within antiferromagnets using 2D antiferromagnetic materials and tunnel junctions.

Researchers at Germany's University of Münster have designed low-loss spin-wave waveguides in yttrium iron garnet thin films using silicon ion implantation, creating an amorphous waveguide cladding. The team's spin waveguide network processes information with far less energy and could offer a promising alternative to power-hungry electronics.

The rapid rise in AI applications has placed increasingly heavy demands on energy infrastructures, causing researchers to look for energy-saving solutions for AI hardware. One promising idea is the use of so-called spin waves to process information. The team in this work, led by physicist Prof. Rudolf Bratschitsch (Münster), has developed a new way to produce waveguides in which the spin waves can propagate particularly far. They have not only created the largest spin waveguide network to date, but also succeeded in specifically controlling the properties of the spin wave transmitted in the waveguide. For example, they were able to precisely alter the wavelength and reflection of the spin wave at a certain interface. 

Researchers at Osaka University have reported a technique for recovering magnetism in a degraded spintronics device. This method can be applied to improve the robustness of next-generation semiconductor memory.

Spintronics exploits the spin (and charge) of electrons to process and store memory, which is achieved practically by stacking layers of thin material films that behave differently under the influence of a magnetic field. “These devices can be non-volatile, low-power, and robust, but the manufacturing process can cause their magnetic properties to deteriorate,” explains Tomohiro Koyama, lead author of the study. The thin films required for these devices are often formed via sputtering, in which atoms are extracted and deposited onto a substrate. This process, however, can often lead to the magnetic layer becoming oxidized, spoiling its magnetic properties.