October 2015

QuantumWise announced the 2015 version of their Virtual NanoLab and Atomistix ToolKit atomic-scale modeling platform software. The company says that this new version includes several performance updates and new features - such as electron-phonon interaction, a new Job Manager, and a long range of analysis functions for molecular dynamics simulations. The company also announced that Virtual NanoLab (but not ATK) is now available completely free of charge to academic users.

Specifically for spintronics research, the new version introduces performance and parallelization improvements which can definitely benefit non-collinear and spin-orbit calculations. In addition, spin-orbit coupling have been updated to perform better.

Researchers from the Lomonosov Moscow State University together with British scientists discovered that superconductivity is able to promote magnetization in certain conditions. Using this effect may lead to faster spintronic devices.

The researchers say that superconducting spintronic devices will demand far less energy and emit less heat compared to current devices. The superconductors may be useful in the process of spin transportation while ferromagnetics may be used to control spins.