March 2018

Perovskite materials offer exciting properties which make them useful for solar panels, fuel cells, lasers, displays and more. Many believe Perovskites are the future of solar power and some estimate that perovskite adoption is right around the corner. Our new video below gives a short introduction to perovskites:

For more information on perovskites and to stay updated on these exciting materials, check out our Perovskite-Info knowledge hub!

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the US NIST discovered that magnetisation in a cobalt-iron-boron layer could be flipped between stable states using only electric current, without an external magnetic field. The researchers call this effect Zero-Field Switching (ZFS).

The researchers say that this effect was not theoretically predicted, as all previous devices of this type have required a magnetic field or other more complex measures to change the material's magnetisation.

Researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), the University of Konstanz and Tohoku University developed a spin-valve structure based on several ferromagnets - which can detect the efficiency of magnon currents depending on the magnetic configuration of the device.

The researchers say that this is a new "building block" for Magnon Spintronics, and this kind of device could be used to the transmission or blocking of incoming spin information.

Spin caloritronics is a new emerging field that explores how heat currents transport electron spin. One interesting application in this field is the use of waste heat to create spintronics devices that do not require any external power to operate.

The thermally driven transport application of spin caloritronics is based on the Seebeck effect - which takes use of the temperature difference between a ferromagnet (FM) and a nonmagnetic metal (NM) to create a thermoelectric voltage.

Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) designed a new spin diode, using two kinds of antiferromagnetic materials. The researchers say that this new design features triple the frequencies range under which the device can rectify alternating currents, while keeping the same sensitivity as semiconductor-based diodes.

The spin diode, in this new design, is placed between the two materials, and by adjusting the orientation of their antiferromagnetic axes, it is possible to change the resistance and the resonant frequency of the diode.

Researchers from the EPFL managed to produce controllable and stable skyrmions using laser pulses. The scientists could write and erase skyrmions in less than a few hundred nanoseconds to a few microseconds.

To create the skyrmions, the researchers used iron-germanium alloy, which can offer skyrmions at about 0 degrees Celsius, very closet o room temperature. The ultra-short laser pulses create an ultra-fast temperature jump, and the super-cooling effect at the end of the jump restricts the place in which skyrmions exist - to places in which they do not exist normally.

Tohoku University published a short video that introduces the spintronics research performed at the University's Center for Science and Innovation in Spintronics:

Researchers from the University of Groningen developed a spin transistor based on magnons (spin-waves). This transistor allows the researchers to alter the flow of spin waves through a magnet - with only an electrical current.

To create the transistor, the researchers used films of platinum that inject magnons into a magnet made of Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG). A third platinum strip, inserted between the injector and detector allows the researchers to either inject additional magnons in the conduction channel or drain magnons from it.