December 2014

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Cornell University managed to use an electric field to reverse the magnetization direction in a multiferroic spintronic device at room temperature.

The researchers showed that 180-degree magnetization switching in the multiferroic bismuth ferrite can be achieved at room temperature with an external electric field when the kinetics of the switching involves a two-step process. They say that this demonstration, which runs counter to conventional scientific wisdom, points a new way towards spintronics applications.

Researchers from Spain discovered a way of using lead atoms and graphene to create a powerful magnetic field by the interaction of the electrons' spin with their orbital movement. The scientists believe that this discovery could come in handy for spintronics applications.

The researchers laid a layer of lead on a layer of graphene, grown over an iridium crystal. This way, the lead forms 'islands' below the graphene and the electrons of this 2D material behave as if in the presence of a huge 80-tesla magnetic field, which allows for the selective control of the flow of spins. The scientists also state that under these conditions certain electric states are immune to defects and impurities.

Several Universities and commercial companies announced the establishment of a new Spintronics Consortium in Singapore, to be called the Singapore Spintronics Consortium (SG-SPIN). The Consortium will encourage and help researchers to explore innovative spin-based technologies for sensor, memory and logic applications.

The founding members of SG-SPIN are the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Applied Materials, Delta Electronics and GlobalFoundried. The NUS will lead the consortium.