Due to the continuous updating of technology, traditional silicon-based electronic technology is rapidly approaching its limits, such as the limits of physical properties. Spintronics and antiferromagnetic materials are alternatives, they can store twice as much information in the same space.
Currently, more and more information needs to be stored, but terminal equipment is getting smaller and smaller. In addition, due to the continuous update of technology, traditional silicon-based electronic technology is rapidly approaching its limits, such as the limits of physical properties, such as the number of bits or electrons required to store information. Spintronics and antiferromagnetic materials are alternatives. They are not only electrons that can be used to store information, but their rotation contains electromagnetic information. In this way, twice as much information can be stored in the same space.
Researchers at the University of Mainz have discovered that information can be stored in antiferromagnetic materials and can evaluate the efficiency of their write operations.
Antiferromagnetism is a kind of magnetism of materials. The magnetic moments are arranged in antiparallel staggered order, but they do not show a strong net magnetic moment. This state of magnetic order is called antiferromagnetism. In the interior of antiferromagnetic materials, the spins of adjacent valence electrons tend to opposite directions, the net magnetic moment of these materials is zero, and no magnetic field is generated. Antiferromagnetic substances are relatively uncommon, and most of them only exist in low temperature conditions. Antiferromagnetic substances include chromium, manganese, light lanthanides and so on.
Recently, researchers from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (JGU) and Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan have confirmed that it is feasible to store information using anti-ferromagnetic materials. "We can not only show that information is stored in anti-ferromagnetic materials. It is basically feasible, and it can effectively evaluate the efficiency of writing electronic information into insulating antiferromagnetic materials.” said Dr. Lorenzo Baldrati, a researcher in the group of Professor Mathias Klui of JGU. For the evaluation, the researchers used antiferromagnetic insulating cobalt oxide (CoO), a model material that can help achieve application landing. The results show that: controlling antiferromagnetic materials by current is more efficient than magnetic fields.
This discovery expands the application fields of antiferromagnetic materials, including from smart cards that cannot be demagnetized by an external magnetic field to ultrafast computers-all thanks to the superior performance of antiferromagnetic materials over ferromagnets. Related research papers have recently been published in "Physical Review Letters" (Physical Review Letters). In the future, JGU researchers also want to study how quickly information can be stored and how "small" the memory can be written.
Magnetic materials have long been used by people in various fields of life, such as electronics, automation, communications, household appliances, and many other fields, and the advancement of information storage, processing and transmission is inseparable from the development of theoretical research and experimental methods of magnetic materials. Innovation. Anti-ferromagnetism has been proposed for more than half a century, and its practical application has never been optimistic. Later, in 1988, French physicist Albert-Fair and his research team discovered that there are alternating iron and chromium films in a single layer. After the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect in the iron-chromium superlattice film made, the research boom in spintronics officially started.
However, it is still controversial whether it is possible to store electronic information in antiferromagnetic materials. Professor Mathias Klui said that the University of Mainz and Tohoku University in Japan have conducted long-term cooperation in the field of spintronics. In the future, the two universities will also establish the first joint degree to address the emerging antiferromagnetic spintronics. An excellent international team has been established in the field to jointly study antiferromagnetic and spintronics technologies and their applications.