Concept for a New Storage Medium
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Concept for a new storage medium:
Using nanoscale quantum sensors, an international research team has succeeded in exploring certain previously uncharted physical properties of an antiferromagnetic material. Based on their results, the researchers developed a concept for a new storage medium published in the journal Nature Physics. The project was coordinated by researchers from the Department of Physics and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute at the University of Basel.
Antiferromagnets make up 90 percent of all magnetically ordered materials. Unlike ferromagnets such as iron, in which the magnetic moments of the atoms are oriented parallel to each other, the orientation of the magnetic moments in antiferromagnets alternates between neighboring atoms. As a result of the cancelation[sic] of the alternating magnetic moments, antiferromagnetic materials appear non-magnetic and do not generate an external magnetic field.
Antiferromagnets hold great promise for exciting applications in data processing, as the orientation of their magnetic moment -- in contrast to the ferromagnets used in conventional storage media -- cannot be accidentally overwritten by magnetic fields. In recent years, this potential has given rise to the budding research field of antiferromagnetic spintronics, which is the focus of numerous research groups around the world.
[...] "Next, we plan to look at whether the domain walls can also be moved by means of electrical fields," Maletinsky explains. "This would make antiferromagnets suitable as a storage medium that is faster than conventional ferromagnetic systems, while consuming substantially less energy."
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Journal Reference:
Natascha Hedrich, Kai Wagner, Oleksandr V. Pylypovskyi, et al. Nanoscale mechanics of antiferromagnetic domain walls, Nature Physics (DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-01157-0)
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