The new study comes from Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz, where physicists and computer experts have been testing out electrically insulating antiferromagnets like iron oxide and nickel oxide in relation to computing power.
Antiferromagnetic materials are microscopic magnets with opposite orientations. Antiferromagnetic materials spontaneously align their magnetic moments antiparallel when a magnetic field is applied and at temperatures below the critical temperature.
These materials could replace the current silicon components in computers. The research breakthrough with a demonstration as to how information can be written and read electrically in insulating antiferromagnetic materials.
Through correlating the change in the magnetic structure, the physics noted, by deploying synchrotron-based imaging the writing mechanisms that could be used in future-state computing.
This discovery could herald ultra-fast computer logic systems. There are other possibilities too, such as credit cards that cannot be erased by external magnetic fields. These technologies are, however, some way off. The current research was a proof-of-principle for the family of antiferromagnetic insulators.
Outlining the importance of the research, lead scientist Dr. Lorenzo Baldrati explains: “We know that we are going to reach soon the limits of conventional electronics based on silicon, due to the continuous technological improvement.”
He adds: “That is the main reason driving research in spintronics, which aims to exploit not only the charge of the electrons but also the spin degree of freedom, doubling the information carried and computed.”
The research has been published in the journal Physical Review Letters. The study paper is called “Mechanism of Néel Order Switching in Antiferromagnetic Thin Films Revealed by Magnetotransport and Direct Imaging.”
