March 2024

An international team, including researchers from CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University at Buffalo, University of Minnesota, State University of New York and others, recently used electrical pulses to manipulate magnetic information into a polarized light signal, which could revolutionize long-distance optical telecommunications.

The researchers applied an electrical pulse to transfer spin information from electrons to photons, the particles that make up light, allowing the information to be carried great distances at great speed. Their method meets three crucial criteria — operation at room temperature, no need of magnetic field and the ability for electrical control — and opens the door to a range of applications, including ultrafast communication and quantum technologies.

Researchers from Tohoku University and Toho University have demonstrated chirality switching by electric current pulses at room temperature in a thin-film MnAu₂ helimagnetic conductor. The team also succeeded in detecting the chirality at zero magnetic fields by means of simple transverse resistance measurement utilizing the spin Berry phase in a bilayer device composed of MnAu₂ and a spin Hall material Pt. These results may pave the way to helimagnet-based spintronics. 

Helimagnetic structures, in which the magnetic moments are spirally ordered, host an internal degree of freedom called chirality corresponding to the handedness of the helix. The chirality seems quite robust against disturbances and is therefore promising for next-generation magnetic memory. While the chirality control was recently achieved by the magnetic field sweep with the application of an electric current at low temperature in a conducting helimagnet, problems such as low working temperature and cumbersome control and detection methods have to be solved in practical applications.

Zhengzhou University researchers have synthesized a new material that combines graphene's remarkable properties with a strong response to magnetic fields. 

Graphene has a long spin lifetime and hyperfine interactions, making it potentially favorable for spintronics applications. Despite the recent discoveries of spin-containing graphene materials, graphene-based materials with room-temperature macroscopic ferromagnetism are extremely rare. In their recent study, room-temperature ferromagnetic amorphous graphene oxide (GO) was synthesized by introducing abundant oxygen-containing functional groups and C defects into single-layered graphene, followed by a self-assembly process under supercritical CO₂ (SC CO₂). 

Researchers at North Carolina State University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Duke University and Sivananthan Laboratories have relied on a printable organic polymer, that assembles into chiral structures when printed, to reliably measure the amount of charge produced in spin-to-charge conversion within a spintronic material at room temperature. 

The polymer’s tunable qualities and versatility make it desirable not only for less expensive, environmentally friendly, printable electronic applications, but also for use in understanding chirality and spin interactions more generally.

A new project called MultiSpin.AI was launched in February 2024 and will go on for a period of three years. The project has secured funding totaling more than three million euros from the EIC Pathfinder funding program.

MultiSpin.AI proposes to apply spintronics to the field of artificial intelligence. Processing units will be developed for electrical circuits based on magnetic tunnel junctions. This is a quantum phenomenon that allows electrons to behave in ways not foreseen in classical physics, being able to cross obstacles that, under ‘usual’ conditions, they would not have enough energy to overcome.

Researchers from Tohoku University have developed a theoretical model for high-performance spin wave reservoir computing (RC) that utilizes spintronics technology. This achievement could push scientists closer to realizing energy-efficient, nanoscale computing with unparalleled computational power.

Scientists are constantly striving to create neuromorphic devices that mimic the brain's processing capabilities, low power consumption, and its ability to adapt to neural networks. The development of neuromorphic computing is revolutionary, allowing scientists to explore nanoscale realms, GHz speed, with low energy consumption. In recent years, many advances in computational models inspired by the brain have been made. These artificial neural networks have demonstrated extraordinary performances in various tasks. However, current technologies are software-based; their computational speed, size, and energy consumption remain constrained by the properties of conventional electric computers.

The EU project 2DSPIN-TECH aims to pave the way for significantly faster and more energy-efficient computer memories. Last week, the project kickoff event took place, with seven partners and €4 million in funding. The project spans three years and is conducted within the framework of the EU’s Graphene Flagship, a multibillion-dollar initiative launched over a decade ago to stimulate research and innovation in graphene and other two-dimensional materials.

“Our ambition is to create novel spintronic memory devices based on two-dimensional quantum materials, significantly reducing energy consumption, promoting sustainability, and enhancing the overall performance of computer memories. This is crucial for the future of information technology,” says Saroj Dash, Professor of quantum component physics at Chalmers University of Technology and coordinator of 2DSPIN-TECH.