Phys.org April 25, 2022 To interface skyrmionics with electronic devices requires efficient and reliable ways of creating and destroying such excitations. An international team of researchers (Germany, USA – Flatiron Institute, Sweden) unravel the microscopic mechanism behind ultrafast skyrmion generation by femtosecond laser pulses in transition metal thin films. They employed a theoretical approach based on a two-band electronic model and showed that by exciting the itinerant electronic subsystem with a femtosecond laser ultrafast skyrmion nucleation can occur on a 100 fs timescale. By combining numerical simulations with an analytical treatment, they identified the coupling between electronic currents and the […]
Tag Archives: Computer memory
Magnetic symmetry is not just like looking in a mirror (w/video)
Nanowerk November 18, 2021 Magnetizing RAM technology could reduce energy consumption. To do so domain walls must be better understood. An international team of researchers (USA – UC San Diego, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Colorado, France) uncovered the quantitative explanation for magnetic symmetry breaking during domain wall motion based on experiments performed using thin films of platinum, cobalt, and nickel. By applying magnetic fields in various directions to Pt/Co/Ni they saw that instead of growing in a direction parallel to the magnetic field the domains jetted out along precise, but seemingly arbitrary directions, which appeared to violate conventional notions […]
Scientists take steps to create a ‘racetrack memory,’ potentially enhancing data storage
Science Daily May 5, 2020 A team of researchers in US ( New York University, University of Virginia, NIST, University of Colorado, Boulder) are working to supplant current methods of mass data storage with a skyrmion racetrack memory which reconfigures magnetic fields in innovative ways. It has improved density of information storage, faster operation, and lower energy use. Skyrmions can be moved by applying an external stimulus, such as a current pulse. They are only stable in very specific material environments, so identifying the ideal materials that can host skyrmions and the circumstances under which they are created is a […]
Promising material could lead to faster, cheaper computer memory
Science Daily May 2, 2019 Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) has the potential to store information much more efficiently than is currently possible. However, its magnetoelectric response is small. Researchers at the University of Arkansas simulated conditions that enhance the magnetoelectric response to the point that it could be used to more efficiently store information by using electricity, rather than magnetism. They found additional oscillations consisting of a mixing between acoustic phonons, optical phonons, and magnons, and reflect the existence of a new quasiparticle that can be coined an “electroacoustic magnon.” The finding could help tune the samples to the magnetostrictive-induced mechanical […]
Using a virus to make a better type of memory
Nanowerk November 27, 2018 An international team of researchers (USA – MIT, Singapore) controlled the morphology, composition, and functionality of Segregating-binary-alloy-type germanium–tin oxide systems using template-driven nucleation that leverages the electrostatic-binding specificity of the M13 bacteriophage surface. A wire like phase-change materials (PCM) was achieved, with controllable and reliable phase-changing signatures, capable of tens of nanoseconds switching times. This approach addresses some of the critical material compositional and structural constraints that currently diminish the utility of PCMs in universal memory systems…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE