October 2023

Scientists at Delft University of Technology have used superconducting diamagnetism to shape the magnetic environment governing the transport of spin waves—collective spin excitations in magnets that are promising on-chip signal carriers—in a thin-film magnet. 

The team has shown that it’s possible to control and manipulate spin waves on a chip using superconductors for the first time. These tiny waves in magnets may offer an alternative to electronics in the future, interesting for energy-efficient information technology or connecting pieces in a quantum computer, for example. The results of this work give scientists new insight into the interaction between magnets and superconductors.

Researchers from the groups of Prof. Herre Van der Zant at TU Delft and Prof. Yara Galvão Gobato at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCAR) have teamed up to explore Van der Waals Heterostructures for Spintronics via a recent SPRINT grant. The goal of the collaboration was to combine the expertise of two labs: Van der Zant group’s on fabricating heterostructures involving two-dimensional magnetic materials and Galvão Gobato group’s on optical measurements on semiconductors.

The teams visited each other's countries to see the research facilities, meet researchers and discuss opportunities of complementary studies on the physical properties of 2D heterostructures. They also established the design of samples which were prepared in the Netherlands and Brazil, planned several optical experiments in Brazil, presented seminaries for researchers and students from Brazil and the Netherlands, discussed the preliminarily results and draft publications. They also discussed a possible long-term joint research project in van der Waals heterostructures based on 2D magnetic materials.

Researchers from The Ohio State University in the U.S, Uppsala University in Sweden and the UK's University of Exeter have used a novel technique to confirm a previously undetected physics phenomenon that could be used to improve data storage in the next generation of computer devices.

Spintronic memories, like those used in some high-tech computers and satellites, use magnetic states generated by an electron's intrinsic angular momentum to store and read information. Depending on its physical motion, an electron's spin produces a magnetic current. Known as the "spin Hall effect," this has key applications for magnetic materials across many different fields, ranging from low power electronics to fundamental quantum mechanics.