Researchers develop a new method to observe the orbital Hall effect

Researchers from The Ohio State University in the U.S, Uppsala University in Sweden and the UK's University of Exeter have used a novel technique to confirm a previously undetected physics phenomenon that could be used to improve data storage in the next generation of computer devices.

Spintronic memories, like those used in some high-tech computers and satellites, use magnetic states generated by an electron's intrinsic angular momentum to store and read information. Depending on its physical motion, an electron's spin produces a magnetic current. Known as the "spin Hall effect," this has key applications for magnetic materials across many different fields, ranging from low power electronics to fundamental quantum mechanics.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 14,2023

Neuranics secures $2.3 million investment

Sensor specialist startup Neuranics has secured a $2.3 million investment led by Par Equity. GU Holdings, the investment company for the University of Glasgow, Old College Capital, the University of Edinburgh’s venture investment fund, and London-based Creator Fund, who back scientific founding teams, also participated in the pre-seed round.

Founded in 2021 as a joint spinout from the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh, Neuranics develops pioneering magnetic sensors integrated with semiconductor technology for health, fitness, and metaverse applications. Neuranics’s patented technology uses scalable spintronics sensors powered by semiconductors to detect tiny magnetic signals from organs in the body – for example the heart and muscles of the arms, which the company says could transform the current shortcomings of health monitoring devices and human-machine interfaces.

Read the full story Posted: Sep 29,2023

Researchers succeed in imaging a bulk skyrmion lattice

Researchers from the University of Waterloo, NIST and McMaster University have used neutron imaging and a reconstruction algorithm to reveal for the first time the 3D shapes and dynamics of skyrmions in bulk materials.

The combined image reveals the shape and length of the skyrmion tubes, which vary in response to defects encountered in the surrounding material lattice. Credit: Phys.org, adapted from Nature Physics (2023)

The team is exploring a promising spintronic candidate, a magnetic skyrmion, which is a vortex-like formation of atoms. It arises naturally in certain kinds of atomic lattices in response to magnetic and electrical properties of the surrounding atoms. Skyrmions are typically in the range of 20 to 200 nanometers (billionths of a meter) in size. 

Read the full story Posted: Sep 28,2023

Researchers show that topological materials may open the door to exploring spin hall materials

Researchers from Tohoku University, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guangxi Normal University, Kyushu University and Japan Atomic Energy Agency have reported a significant breakthrough which could revolutionize next-generation electronics by enabling non-volatility, large-scale integration, low power consumption, high speed, and high reliability in spintronic devices.

Spintronic devices, such as magnetic random access memory (MRAM), utilize the magnetization direction of ferromagnetic materials for information storage and rely on spin current, a flow of spin angular momentum, for reading and writing data. Conventional semiconductor electronics have faced limitations in achieving these qualities. However, the emergence of three-terminal spintronic devices, which employ separate current paths for writing and reading information, presents a solution with reduced writing errors and increased writing speed. Nevertheless, the challenge of reducing energy consumption during information writing, specifically magnetization switching, remains a critical concern.

Read the full story Posted: Sep 23,2023

Researchers report enhanced thermally-activated skyrmion diffusion with tunable effective gyrotropic force

Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, the University of Konstanz and Tohoku University in Japan have increased the diffusion of magnetic whirls, so called skyrmions, by a factor of ten.

Science often does not simply consider the spin of an individual electron, but rather magnetic whirls composed of numerous spins. These whirls, called skyrmions, emerge in magnetic metallic thin layers and can be considered as two-dimensional quasi-particles. On the one hand, the whirls can be deliberately moved by applying a small electric current to the thin layers; on the other hand, they move randomly and extremely efficiently due to diffusion. The feasibility of creating a functional computer based on skyrmions was demonstrated by a team of researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), led by Professor Dr. Mathias Kläui, using an initial prototype. This prototype consisted of thin, stacked metallic layers, some only a few atomic layers thick.

Read the full story Posted: Sep 12,2023

TU Delft and Federal University of São Carlos cooperate on spintronics research

Researchers from TU Delft and the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCAR) have teamed up to explore Van der Waals Heterostructures for Spintronics via a recent SPRINT grant. 

The goal of the collaboration is to combine the expertise of two labs: Prof. Herre Van der Zant at TU Delft;s group on fabricating heterostructures involving two-dimensional magnetic materials and Prof. Yara Galvão Gobato's group at UFSCAR on optical measurements on semiconductors.

Read the full story Posted: Sep 07,2023

Researchers use X-ray microscopy to better understand the nature of domain walls

A new study at BESSY II analyzes the formation of skyrmions in ferrimagnetic thin films of dysprosium and cobalt in real time and with high spatial resolution. This could be an important step towards characterizing suitable materials with skyrmions more precisely. 

Magnetic skyrmions are tiny vortices-like of magnetic spin textures that can, in principle, be used for spintronic devices. But currently it is still difficult to control and manipulate skyrmions at room temperature.

Read the full story Posted: Aug 29,2023

Researchers manipulate the edge-states of a topological insulator to reveal materials with ‘two way’ edge transport

Researchers from Monash University in Australia have shown in their recent theoretical study that ‘trimming’ the edge-states of a topological insulator can yield a new class of materials featuring unconventional ‘two way’ edge transport.

The new material, a topological crystalline insulator (TCI) forms a promising addition to the family of topological materials and broadens the scope of materials with topologically nontrivial properties. Its distinctive reliance on symmetry also paves the way for novel techniques to manipulate edge transport, offering potential applications in future transistor devices. For example, ‘switching’ the TCI via an electric field that breaks the symmetry supporting the nontrivial band topology, thus suppressing the edge current.

Read the full story Posted: Aug 22,2023

Researchers manage to control the interaction of light and quantum spin in organic semiconductors at room temperature

Researchers at the University of Cambridge,  University of Manchester, University of Oxford,  Swansea University, Jilin University, University of Namur, University of Mons, Donostia International Physics Centre, University of Würzburg have developed a way to control the interaction of light and quantum 'spin' in organic semiconductors, that even works at room temperature.

The international team of researchers has found a way to use particles of light as a 'switch' that can connect and control the spin of electrons, making them behave like tiny magnets that could be used for quantum applications. The researchers designed modular molecular units connected by tiny 'bridges'. Shining a light on these bridges allowed electrons on opposite ends of the structure to connect to each other by aligning their spin states. Even after the bridge was removed, the electrons stayed connected through their aligned spins.

Read the full story Posted: Aug 18,2023