First-ever wireless device developed to make magnetism appear in non-magnetic materials

Phys.org  October 30, 2023 Magneto-ionics is a unique approach to control magnetism with electric field for low-power memory and spintronic applications. So far, magneto-ionics has been achieved through direct electrical connections to the actuated material. Researchers in Spain have shown that such control can be achieved wirelessly. Without direct wire contact inducing polarization in the conducting material immersed in the electrolyte, promoted wireless bipolar electrochemistry, an alternative pathway to achieve voltage-driven control of magnetism based on the same electrochemical processes involved in direct-contact magneto-ionics. They achieved significant tunability of magnetization for cobalt nitride thin films, including transitions between paramagnetic and […]

Nanoscale rust: The future of magnets?

Phys.org   October 5, 2023 Multiferroics have tremendous potential to revolutionize logic and memory devices through new functionalities and energy efficiencies. To better understand and enhance their ferroic orders and couplings an international team of researchers (Canada, USA – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory) used epsilon iron oxide (ϵ-Fe2O3) as a model system with a simplifying single magnetic ion. Using 15, 20, and 30 nm nanoparticles, they found that a modified and size-dependent Fe–O hybridization changed the spin–orbit coupling. However, the size effects disappeared in the high-temperature phase where the strongest Fe–O hybridization occurred. By manipulating hybridization, they could […]

Lasers make magnets behave like fluids

Science Daily  April 18, 2019 When a magnet is hit with a short enough laser pulse the spins within a magnet will no longer point just up or down, but in all different directions canceling out the metal’s magnetic properties. Using mathematical modeling, numerical simulations and experiments an international team of researchers (USA – University of Colorado, NIST, SLAC, Temple University, UK, Sweden, U, Italy, Germany, China, Japan, Belgium) has shown that the spins behaved like a superfluid 3 picoseconds after a laser pulse hits and then form small clusters with the same orientation like “droplets” in which the spins […]