Magnetic Materials
Discovery a big step toward room-temperature multiferroics
August 10, 2012 4:24 am | News | CommentsMultiferroics are expected to be applied to a new type of memory devices in which dielectric polarization is controlled by a magnetic field and magnetization is controlled by an electric field. However, multiferroic materials that function at room temperature are rare. In a breakthrough toward this goal, a team in Japan and the U.K. have achieved ferroelectric polarization without a magnetic field after discovering that they could swap out atoms and still maintain control of the multiferroic’s dielectric and magnetic properties.
High-performance magnetic coupling research wins Navy grant
August 2, 2012 5:38 am | News | CommentsTraditional mechanical couplings and gears require lubrication, generate heat, emit vibrations and sound, suffer from structural wear and require significant maintenance. Correlated Magnetics Research has been tasked with a Small Business Innovation Research grant to design and develop high-torque magnetic couplings to produce quiet, maintenance free, power-transfer linkages for Naval systems and industrial applications.
MRAM could bridge memory gap
August 1, 2012 12:01 pm | News | CommentsComputers often do not run as fast as they should because they are constantly transferring information between two kinds of memory: a fast, volatile memory connected to the CPU, and a slow, non-volatile memory that remembers data even when switched off. A special class of universal memory called spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory (MRAM) being explored by researchers in Singapore could help avoid this bottleneck.
Scientists demonstrate breakthrough in tunnel barrier technology
July 30, 2012 10:20 am | News | CommentsResearchers reporting fabrication of magnetic tunnel junctions using graphene between two ferromagnetic metal layers have demonstrated, for the first time, the use of graphene as a tunnel barrier—an electrically insulating barrier between two conducting materials through which electrons tunnel quantum mechanically. They accomplished the feat using a fully scalable photolithographic process.
“Rattle memory” moves magnetic data with a ratcheting magnetic field
July 23, 2012 7:36 am | News | CommentsIon irradiation creates an asymmetric potential or 'ratchet' for the main walls (visualised as light yellow spheres). The bit with a magnetic coating is shifted one position to
Why powerlines confuse the internal compass
July 10, 2012 6:38 am | News | CommentsMigratory birds and fish use the Earth’s magnetic field to find their way. Researchers have recently identified cells with internal compass needles for the perception of the field—and can explain why high-tension cables perturb the magnetic orientation.
Molecule changes magnetism and conductance
July 5, 2012 7:35 am | News | CommentsOne bit of digital information stored on a hard disk currently consists of about 3 million magnetic atoms. Researchers in Germany and Japan have now developed a magnetic memory with one bit per molecule. Using an electric pulse deliver by atomic force microscopy, the metal-organic molecule can be switched reliably between a conductive, magnetic state and a low-conductive, non-magnetic state.
Quantum bar magnets in a transparent salt
June 15, 2012 6:45 am | News | CommentsScientists have managed to switch on and off the magnetism of a new material using quantum mechanics, making the material a test bed for future quantum devices. The team of researchers found that the material, a transparent salt, did not suffer from the usual complications of other real magnets, and exploited the fact that its quantum spins interact according to the rules of large bar magnets.
Research group switches magnetism of individual molecules
June 13, 2012 8:14 am | News | CommentsA breakthrough in control of nanoscale molecular magnets has been made at a German research institution. Despite their dense packing in a molecular layer, Dr. Thiruvancheril Gopakumar was able to use a scanning tunneling microscope to switch individual molecules between two magnetic states.
Spin currents found in topological insulators
June 13, 2012 5:14 am | News | CommentsPhysicists in Germany have recently provided new insights into spintronics: In ultra-thin topological insulators, they have identified spin-polarized currents, which were first theoretically predicted six years ago. They have also presenteda method of application for the development of new computers.
“Dirt cheap” magnetic field sensor made from “plastic paint”
June 13, 2012 5:08 am | News | CommentsUniversity of Utah physicists developed an inexpensive, highly accurate magnetic field sensor for scientific and possibly consumer uses based on a “spintronic” organic thin-film semiconductor that basically is “plastic paint.” Its inventors say the new type of magnetometer also resists heat and degradation, works at room temperature and never needs to be calibrated.
X-ray laser uncovers secrets of complex oxide material
May 16, 2012 10:48 am | by Mike Ross | News | CommentsAn international team of researchers has used SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to discover never-before-seen behavior by electrons in complex materials known for their strongly correlated structures. The unusual qualities of these materials, which include oxides such as striped nickelate, stem from the collective behavior of their electrons.
Honeycomb of magnets could usher in new type of computing
May 7, 2012 1:53 pm | News | CommentsThe performance of magnetic storage devices is limited by the way magnetic domains interact when in close proximity. Researchers in the U.K. have demonstrated that a honeycomb pattern of nano-sized magnets in a material known as spin ice introduces competition between neighboring magnets, and reduces the problems caused by these interactions by two-thirds.
Magnetic testing process could deliver more reliable electronics
April 13, 2012 9:14 am | News | CommentsThermal stress can cause debonding between thin layers in microelectronics. Taking advantage of the force generated by magnetic repulsion, researchers have developed a new technique for measuring the adhesion strength between thin films of materials used in these devices, and they hope to apply the method improve solar cells or microelectromechanical devices.
Magnetic field researchers achieve hundred-tesla goal
March 23, 2012 8:58 am | News | CommentsDuring a six-experiment pulse this week, the previous world record for laboratory-produced magnetic fields was broken by Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers. The hundred-tesla field, about 2 million times Earth’s magnetic field was produced with the help of a 1,200-MJ motor generator.
MRAM invention could give spintronics a boost
March 7, 2012 10:29 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Helmholtz Center in Germany have developed a magnetic valve that could be an enabling technology for spintronics. The new structure allows for data to remain stored even after electric current has been cut, and memory in the valve can be re-written indefinitely.
Engineers build an electrical switch for magnetic current
March 1, 2012 3:15 am | News | CommentsResearchers at the Max Planck Institute have put together a sandwich of a ferroelectric layer between two ferromagnetic materials that responded to a short electric pulse. This changes the magnetic transport properties of the material in such a way that information can be placed in four states instead of just two. The potential increase in storage density is great.
Scientists 'record' magnetic breakthrough
February 7, 2012 12:44 pm | News | CommentsInstead of using a magnetic field to record information on a magnetic medium, researchers in the U.K. recently harnessed much stronger internal forces and recorded information using only heat. This new method allows the recording of terabytes of information per second, hundreds of times faster than present hard drive technology.
New theory developed to explain ultrafast magnetism
February 2, 2012 12:57 pm | News | CommentsOn the shortest of time scales magnetic spins do not behave according to existing theory. According to a research team which has formulated a new theory of ultrafast magnetism, the spins are not coupled and move at a different pace, dependent on the element they're part of.
Fabrication method pushes recording density to 3.3 Tb per square inch
February 1, 2012 6:17 am | News | CommentsIn magnetic recording media, each individual bit of information is stored over an area containing tens of grains. Engineers have until now had difficulty pushing beyond a one terabit per square inch limit by either reducing grain size or reducing the grains per bit. Researchers in Singapore have solved the problem by using something called bit-patterned media.
Scientists manipulate magnetism without heating material
January 31, 2012 11:13 am | by Mike Ross, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory | News | CommentsAlthough of purely scientific interest for now, a method that researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have invented to alter magnetic properties in manganese-oxide materials without heating them up could greatly speed up low-voltage, non-volatile computer memory.
Scientists produce magnetic soap
January 24, 2012 4:47 am | News | CommentsA University of Bristol team has dissolved iron in liquid surfactant to create a soap that can be controlled by magnets. The discovery could be used to create cleaning products that can be removed after application and used in the recovery of oil spills at sea.
Researchers find new class of electron interactions in quantum systems
January 23, 2012 11:46 am | News | CommentsPhysicists in Australia have observed a new kind of interaction that can arise between electrons in a single-atom silicon transistor. The study results open the door for new quantum electronic schemes in which it is the orbital nature of the electrons—and not their spin or their charge—that plays a major role.
Giant magnetoresistance can occur in a giant way without magnetism
January 19, 2012 5:46 am | News | CommentsPhase-change random access memory (PCRAM) is a promising technology for next-generation non-volatile memory, but it has been limited by room temperature efficiency. A research group in Japan recently invented a variation of PCRAM that achieves a magnetoresistance effect of more than 2000% at room temperature and higher, and doesn’t require the use of magnetic elements such as cobalt and platinum.
Smallest-ever magnetic data storage unit is built atom by atom
January 16, 2012 8:49 am | News | CommentsScientists from IBM and the German Center for Free-Electron Laser Science have built the world's smallest magnetic data storage unit. It uses just twelve atoms per bit, the basic unit of information, and squeezes a whole byte (8 bits) into as few as 96 atoms.
