RIKEN researchers have brought low-energy devices based on spintronics one step closer, by measuring the dynamics of tiny magnetic vortices.
At present, all our information technologies are based on conventional electronics, which involves shunting electric charge around circuits. However, electrons have another property known as spin, which could be exploited to make faster and more efficient devices.
Hazuki Kawano-Furukawa of the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and her co-workers are leading efforts to develop this field of spintronics. In particular, they are exploring the use of nanoscale magnetic whirlpools called skyrmions.
“Skyrmions can be controlled with significantly smaller currents or electric fields,” explains Kawano-Furukawa. “This makes them highly promising for future applications in information and communication technologies, such as computer memory that doesn’t need power to keep stored data.”
The team focused on the material manganese monosilicide—a helimagnet, so-called because the spins in its molecular lattice align in helical patterns. Extremely sensitive equipment was necessary to measure the lowest energy magnetic excitations in the skyrmion states. Their research was published in Nature Physics.
2023-11-12 11:41:02
Article from phys.org