Magnetic eddies have been observed to circulate strongly in metallic materials, It can be applied to computer memory and advanced microelectronics.
A multi-industry company has discovered something amazing about magnets. This research may contribute to information storage, such as computer memory and advanced microelectronics.
Microelectronics today is the foundation of many modern technologies, including smartphones, laptops and even supercomputers. It depends on the ability to allow and stop the scattering of electrons from the material. Electrons, or spintronics, are observable. It depends on the rotation of electrons and the fact that the rotation of electrons and electric charges creates a magnetic field.
“This property can be exploited to form the building blocks of future computing memory storage, new brain-like other computing systems, and high-performance microelectronics,” said Charudatta Phatak, one of the leader of the Science Division. of Materials from the US Department of. Energy (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.
A team including researchers from Argonne and the National High Magnetic Fields Laboratory (MagLab) has made a surprising discovery (Magnetic eddies have been observed to circulate strongly in metallic materials) in a magnetic material composed of iron, germanium and tellurium. This material is in the form of a thin sheet of at least 10 atoms. This is called a 2D ferromagnet.
The team found that two types of magnets can coexist in this ultrathin material. Scientists call them merons and skyrmions. They are like small thunderstorm systems that strike the flat ferromagnetic earth. But they differ in size and swirling quality.
Known and studied for about 15 years, skyrmions are about 100 nanometers in height – about the size of a virus – and their magnetic field flows in a complex pattern, like that of a string and a cable. The recently discovered merons are about the same size and have a magnetic field that swirls like a whirlpool.
“Skyrmions and merons are very stable because, like a knotted string, they are difficult to untie,” said Luis Balicas, who holds a position in the MagLab at Florida State University. “This stability and their magnetic properties make them attractive as carriers of information.”
The team was the first to observe these two magnetic elements in a thin film simultaneously at low temperatures, from minus 280 to 155 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition, merons are still available indoors, which is important for their use in practical devices. In the past, they were only found at low temperatures and in different materials.
The team also showed that skyrmions and merons are detected by their effect on an applied current, by measuring the voltage. This feature means they can adapt to the binary code used in all digital computers. This code consists of a combination of 1s and 0s. In a spintronic device, 1 will be reflected by an electric signal that detects a skyrmion or meron. No electrical signal will result in 0.
Finding and defining the different magnetic textures of films with less than 10 atoms requires special scientific tools. Argonne scientist Yue Li used an instrument called a Lorentz transfer electron microscope (TEM) to lead this difficult task. This microscope includes optical correction technology to improve its resolution. This TEM allows the magnetic field of nanoscale objects to be observed under different magnetic fields across a wide range of temperatures, a unique capability at Argonne. This range extends from minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit to room temperature.
The team worked on magnetic fronts and other imaging at the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne, a DOE agency for science staff.
“A lot of basic research is needed to better understand how skyrmions and merons behave under different conditions, and how they can be used to transmit information,” Balicas said. “There are a lot of programs that look like science fiction. We can’t predict the future, but it looks like one or more may start.
This research has been published in Advanced Materials.
Source: Argonne National Laboratory.
