December 2018

As 2018 is coming to an end, it is nice to take a look at the year that passed with its interesting spintronics related research activities and advances.

Here are the top 10 stories posted on Spintronics-Info in 2018, ranked by popularity (i.e. how many people read the story):

1. New video introduces the spintronics research performed at the University of Tohoku (Mar 5)
2. Video lecture - Spin Conversion Phenomena in Spintronics (Apr 8)
3. Zero-Field Switching effect discovered in cobalt-iron-boron (Mar 21)
4. Researchers develop a magnons-based spin transistor (Mar 2)
5. Researchers discover a metallic antiferromagnet with a large magneto-optic Kerr effect (Jan 30)
6. Introduction to perovskite materials (Mar 28)
7. Researchers develop a Magnon Spin Valve (Mar 18)
8. Researchers develop an all-electric method to measure the spin texture of topological insulators (Apr 27)
9. Ohio State University's Prof. Kawakami discusses spintronics in 2D materials (Jun 10)
10. Researchers manage to connect magnetic porphyrin molecules to graphene nanoribbons (Feb 19)

Researchers from the UK's Manchester University have explored opportunities presented by hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as a prototypical high-quality two-dimensional insulator that can be used both as a barrier in MTJs and as for spin injection in lateral spin valves.

The research revealed the effect of point defects inevitably present in mechanically exfoliated hBN on the tunnel magnetoresistance of Co-hBN-NiFe MTJs. In particular, the researchers observe a marked enhancement of the magnetoresistance of the junction at well-defined bias voltages, indicating resonant tunneling through magnetic or 'spin-polarized' defect states.

Researchers of the NanoBioMedical center at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan- Poland, in collaboration with the University of Barcelona in Spain, have recently reported on the room temperature multiferroic behavior of Bismuth Iron Manganite (Bi(Fe_0.5Mn_0.5)O₃) thin films, with a thickness below 40nm.

Multiferroic materials are promising for electronics due to the possibility of affecting their magnetic properties by electric means. In their article the team has not only shown the interdependence of both magnetic and electric properties at room temperature but has also shown the exceptional low magnetic damping of this material, making it one of the only known ferromagnetic and ferroelectric multiferroic with low damping.

Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science have managed for the first time to observe a square lattice of merons and antimerons - tiny magnetic vortices and antivortices. The magnetic merons (and antimerons) were formed in a thin plate of the helical magnet Co₈Zn₉Mn₃.

The researchers were also able to induce a transformation between the square lattice of merons-antimerons and a hexagonal lattice of skyrmions, by finely varying a magnetic field applied perpendicularly to the thin film material.

Researchers from MIT and the DoE Brookhaven National Laboratory designed a way to use hydrogen ions, drawn from airborne water molecules at room temperature, to electrically control magnetism in a thin magnetic film.

The thin-film was made from cobalt, palladium and gadolinium oxide on a platinum base - and gold contacts. The hydrogen ions are used for reversible magneto-ionic switching in the thin film. This is the first time that scientists have demonstrated reversible “hydriding” of a heavy metal.

Researchers from Intel and the University of California in Berkeley developed a new scalable spintronics logic deice, which they magneto-electric spin-orbit (MESO) logic device that offers dramatic improvement over current CMOS technology.

Intel says that MESO based logic, compared to CMOS, will offer a superior switching energy (by a factor of 10 to 30), lower switching voltage (by a factor of 5), an enhanced logic density (by a factor of 5) and ultra low standby power (due to the non-volatility of the spin-based device).