November 2014

QuantumWise released a new version of their Atomistix ToolKit (ATK) simulation software. The new version speeds up simulation performance by 40%. The new version also includes several new features, including noncollinear spin enables computations of spin transfer torque and other properties of magnetic tunnel junctions.

A sketch of a MgO/CFA p-MTJ

ATK 2014 introduces several new methodology improvements which make noncollinear simulations fast and robust. ATK thus enables studies of transport problems using Non-Equilibrium Green’s Functions (NEGF) combined with density functional theory (DFT), including spin-orbit interaction and meta-GGA functionals for accurate band gap predictions of the insulating barrier in the MTJ.

Researchers at the Spanish ICN2 Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience Group discovered that graphene has an unprecendented spin relaxation mechanism for non-magnetic samples. This may hold great promise for spintronics applications such as MRAM memory.

This mechanism is unique to graphene and may enable manipulating spin degree of freedom in future information-processing technologies.

Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the University of Cambridge in the UK have shown that you can directly generate an electric current in a magnetic material by rotating the material's magnetization.

This new link between magnetism and electricity, called charge pumping, may find applications in spintronics devices. It will enable new nano-scale magnetic information detection techniques and can also be used to generate very high-frequency alternating currents.