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 […]

Magnetic memory states go exponential

EurekAlert  July 9, 2020 When spintronic devices are used for storing data, the number of stable states sets an upper limit on memory capacity. Researchers in Israel have shown that relatively simple structures can support exponential number of magnetic states – much greater than previously thought. They studied structures that are magnetic thin films patterned in the form of N crossing ellipses which have two to the power of 2N magnetization states. The researchers demonstrated switching between the states by generating spin currents. The finding may pave the way to multi-level magnetic memory with extremely large number of states per […]