Scientist shows electric fields can be used as ON/OFF switches

Ramamoorthy Ramesh, along with his colleagues at Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division in the US, successfully demonstrated that electric fields can be used as ON/OFF switches in doped multiferroic films. Multiferroics are materials in which unique combinations of electric and magnetic properties can simultaneously coexist.

They are potential cornerstones in future magnetic data storage and spintronic devices provided a simple and fast way can be found to turn their electric and magnetic properties on and off.

Ramesh and his colleagues at the Berkeley Lab, working with a prototypical multiferroic, have successfully demonstrated just such a switch - electric fields.

Posted: Jun 02,2009 by Ron Mertens