Researchers develop a simple method to manipulate the magnetization angle of magnetite

Researchers from the Tokyo University of Science have developed an all-solid redox device composed of magnetite (Fe3O4) thin film and a solid electrolyte containing lithium ions that successfully manipulated the magnetization angle at room temperature.

Magnetite magnetization manipulation (Tokyo University of Science)

The researchers say they have developed a surprisingly simple yet efficient strategy to manipulate the magnetization angle in magnetite, a typical ferromagnetic material. This magnetization rotation is caused by the change of spin-orbit coupling due to electron injection into a ferromagnet. The new approach leverages a reversible electrochemical reaction.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 19,2020

Researchers discover that current flow in a ferromagnetic conductor can produce a magnetic-moment directed spin polarization

Researchers from NYU and IBM Research have created a spintronics device from a ferromagnetic conductor and discovered that current flow in the conductor can produce a spin polarization that is in a direction set by its magnetic moment.

This discovery means that magnetic moment direction can be set in just about any desired direction to then set the spin polarization - this is not possible using the contours of the spin Hall effect in non-magnetic heavy metals.

Read the full story Posted: May 29,2020

Researchers discover an unseen mode of GMR in 2D materials

Researchers from two FLEET universities in Australia, RMIT and UNSW, collaborated in a theoretical–experimental project that discovered a previously unseen mode of giant magneto-resistance (GMR) in 2D Fe3GeTe2 (FGT). This surprising result suggests a different underlying physical mechanisms in vdW hetero-structures.

The research shows that vdW materials (2D material) could offer higher functionaly cmopared to traditional spintronic approaches.

Read the full story Posted: Jul 07,2019

Researchers use thin GaMnAs film to create an extremely efficient spintronics device

Researchers from the University of Tokyo have developed a spintronics device that can quickly and efficiently magnetize - which they say is between one and two orders of magnitude more power efficient than current spintronics device.

Magnetization reverse in GaMnAs (UTokyo)

The researchers used a ferromagnetic semiconductor material called gallium manganese arsenide (GaMnAs) - the magnetization of which can be fully reversed with the application of very small current densities.

Read the full story Posted: Jun 16,2019

HZB researchers managed to switch superferromagnetism with electric-field induced strain

Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie Institute demonstrate how it is possible to induce a magnetic order on a small region of a material by using a small electric field, instead of commonly used magnetic field.

Spintronics by straintronics HZB

Te researchers used a wedge-shaped polycrystalline iron thin film deposited on top of a BaTiO3 substrate (a well-known ferroelectric and ferroelastic material). Given their small size, the magnetic moments of the iron nanograins are disordered with respect to each other, this state is known as superparamagnetism.

Read the full story Posted: Feb 17,2019

Researchers say that ferrimagnets-based spintronics devices could be faster than ferromagnets ones

Researchers from MIT, the Max-Born Institute, Technische Universität Berlin and the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) say ferrimagnets-based spintronics devices could be faster than ferromagnets ones.

Pt/Co44Gd56 ferrimagnetic schematic

Ferromagnets are traditional magnets - such as iron. Ferrimagnets are materials that have two types of ions with magnetic moments that are not equal - and are also polarized in opposite directions.Using these two ion types could be used, according to the researchers, to create smaller bits in magnetic memory as these will allow faster domain wall dynamics to occur.

Read the full story Posted: Sep 28,2018

Researchers from Mainz University demonstrate the basic principles of ultra-fast and stable memory based on Mn2Au antiferromagnets

Researchers from Mainz University demonstrate the basic principles of ultra-fast and stable memory based on the antiferromagnet Mn2Au. Antiferromagnetic materials are challenging to manipulate and to implement a read-out process (of the Neel vector orientation on).

Crystal structure of Mn2Au with antiferromagnetically ordered magnetic moments.

Up until now, researchers were only able to use a single antiferromagnetic material - copper manganese arsenide (CuMnAs), but this material had several disadvantages. The new compound, manganese and gold (Mn2Au) offers for example ten times larger magnetoresistance and other important advantages including its non-toxic composition and the fact that it can be used even at higher temperatures.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 31,2018

Researcher discover a 2D material that possessed an intrinsic ferromagnetism.

Researchers from the DoE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory discovered that 2-D chromium germanium telluride (CGT) feature an intrinsic ferromagnetism. Up until now it was not clear whether magnetism could survive in such thin materials - but this discovery proved that it could of course.

Detecting electron spin in CGT, Berkeley

The CGT flakes were produced using exfoliating (the scotch-tape method, the same one used to produce graphene in Manchester in 2004). This discovery can lead to extremely thin spintronic devices.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 30,2017

Researchers finally explain ferromagnetism in Mn-doped GaAs

Researchers at Tohoku University managed to find the origin and the mechanism of ferromagnetism in Mn-doped GaAs. This phenomonon has been puzzling researchers for over 20 years, and this new explanation may help to accelerate the development of spintronic devices made from such materials.

Tohoku Crystal structure of (Ga,Mn)As

Mn-doped GaAs crystals exhibit characteristics and properties of both semiconductor and magnet. It is possible to use an electric field to control the magnetism in such materials - which makes them very appealing candidates for spintronic devices.

Read the full story Posted: Jun 08,2016

Iron-doped ferromagnetic semiconductors at room temperature

Researchers from Japan and Vietnam report an iron-doped ferromagnetic semiconductors at room temperature. They say this is the same time that a ferromagnetic semiconductor is demonstrated, which is seen as a promising spintronic device material.

The researchers say that current theory predicted that a type of semiconductor known as "wide band gap" would be strongly ferromagnetic, and most research focused on that approach. But the researchers chose a narrow-gap semconductor (both indium arsenide and gallium antimonide were chosen) as the host semiconductor, which enabled them to obtain ferromagnetism and conserve it at room temperature by adjusting doping concentrations.

Read the full story Posted: May 10,2016