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First All-Antiferromagnetic Memory Device Could Get Storage in Spin

Can be controlled to make completely different form of digital memory.

Source : University of Nottingham, UK

If you haven’t already heard of antiferromagnetic spintronics it won’t be long before you do. This relatively unused class of magnetic materials could be about to transform our digital lives. They have the potential to make our devices smaller, faster, more robust and increase their energy efficiency.

Physicists at The University of Nottingham, working in collaboration with researchers in the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland, and Hitachi Europe, have published a new research in the prestigious academic journal Science which shows how the ‘magnetic spins’ of these antiferromagnets can be controlled to make a completely different form of digital memory.

Lead researcher Dr Peter Wadley, from the School of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Nottingham, said: “This work demonstrates the first electrical current control of antiferromagnets. It utilises an entirely new physical phenomenon, and in doing so demonstrates the first all-antiferromagnetic memory device. This could be hugely significant as antiferromagnets have an intriguing set of properties, including a theoretical switching speed limit approximately 1000 times faster than the best current memory technologies.”

Article :

Electrical switching of an antiferromagnet

Science Magazine has published an article written by P. Wadley,, B. Howells, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK, J. Železný, Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Cukrovarnická 10, 162 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic. And Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Ke Karlovu 3, 121 16 Prague 2, Czech Republic, C. Andrews, V. Hills, R. P. Campion, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK, V. Novák, K. Olejník, Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Cukrovarnická 10, 162 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic, F. Maccherozzi, S. S. Dhesi, Diamond Light Source, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0DE, UK, S. Y. Martin, Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK, T. Wagner, Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK and Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK, J. Wunderlich, Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Cukrovarnická 10, 162 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic and Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK, F. Freimuth, Y. Mokrousov, Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany, J. Kuneš, Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Na Slovance 2, 182 21 Praha 8, Czech Republic, J. S. Chauhan, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK, M. J. Grzybowski, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK and Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, al. Lotnikow 32/46, 00-681 Warsaw, Poland, A. W. Rushforth, K. W. Edmonds, B. L. Gallagher, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK, and T. Jungwirth, Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Cukrovarnická 10, 162 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic and School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.

Abstract : Antiferromagnets are hard to control by external magnetic fields because of the alternating directions of magnetic moments on individual atoms and the resulting zero net magnetization. However, relativistic quantum mechanics allows for generating current-induced internal fields whose sign alternates with the periodicity of the antiferromagnetic lattice. Using these fields, which couple strongly to the antiferromagnetic order, we demonstrate room-temperature electrical switching between stable configurations in antiferromagnetic CuMnAs thin film devices by applied current with magnitudes of order 106 Acm-2. Electrical writing is combined in our solid-state memory with electrical readout and the stored magnetic state is insensitive to and produces no external magnetic field perturbations, which illustrates the unique merits of antiferromagnets for spintronics;

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