August 2021

An international team of researchers has presented a finding that could help to identify exotic quantum states. The team seen strongly competing factors that affect an electron's behavior in a high-quality quantum material.

As an electron moves, its motion and spin can become linked through an effect known as spin–orbit coupling. This effect is useful because it offers a way to externally control the motion of an electron depending on its spin—a vital ability for spintronics. Spin–orbit coupling is a complex mix of quantum physics and relativity, but it becomes easier to understand by envisioning a round soccer ball. "If a soccer player kicks the ball, it flies on a straight trajectory," explains Denis Maryenko of the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science. "But if the player gives the ball some rotation, or spin, its path bends." The ball's trajectory and its spinning motion are connected. If its spinning direction is reversed, the ball's path will bend in the opposite direction.

Researchers from Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) in Korea have demonstrated a novel route to tune and control the magnetic domain wall motions employing combinations of useful magnetic effects inside very thin film materials. The research offers a new insight into spintronics and a step towards new ultrafast, ultrasmall, and power-efficient IT devices.

The new study demonstrates a new way to handle information processing using the movement of the magnetic states of the thin film device. It takes advantage of some unusual effects that occur when materials with contrasting types of magnetic material are squashed together. The research focuses on a device that combines ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials, in which the directions of electron spins align differently within the respective magnetic materials.

Researchers at the University of Vienna have designed a 3D magnetic nanonetwork, where magnetic monopoles emerge due to rising magnetic frustration among the nanoelements, and are stable at room temperature.

The new three dimensional (3D) nano-network could mean a new era in modern solid state physics, with numerous applications in photonics, bio-medicine, and spintronics. The realization of 3D magnetic nano-architectures could enable ultra-fast and low-energy data storage devices.