WIREDGOV

Smaller, faster, cheaper – we’re always looking ahead to the next version of our electronics and the latest technology advances it has to offer. To satisfy this desire for ever more processing power, at ever diminishing energy cost, in even tinier devices, scientists in the UK are looking to spintronics (spin transport electronics) to provide the next generation of high-speed, high-efficiency electronic devices.

New research, undertaken at the ISIS pulsed neutron and muon source at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and led by a team of physicists at the University of Nottingham has been published in the journal Nature Communications, reporting on the development of a new antiferromagnetic spintronic material, (where the magnetic moments of atoms or molecules align in a regular pattern with neighboring spins pointing in opposite directions), which could provide one of the answers.

Professor Sean Langridge, Head of the ISIS diffraction and Materials Division said: “Performing neutron diffraction on layers a thousand times thinner than a human hair is challenging, but the WISH instrument at ISIS is well equipped to tackle such demands. Using WISH, we were able to provide unique, absolute atomic-scale information on the antiferromagnetic structure that was vital to the understanding of this fascinating material.”

Spintronics offers the possibility of lower power consumption which enables higher density computation and storage. Since antiferromagnets have no associated magnetic field, antiferromagnetic spintronics means individual devices do not interact with one another and in theory they can therefore be packed together even more densely.

You can read more here.

Notes to editors

Corinne Mosese
STFC Press Officer
01793 979724

ISIS is a world-leading centre for research in physical and life sciences operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxfordshire, UK. ISIS supports an international community of over 2000 scientists who use neutrons and muons for research in physics, chemistry, materials science, geology, engineering and biology. It is the most productive research centre of its type in the world.

WISH is a long-wavelength diffractometer primarily designed for powder diffraction at long d-spacing in magnetic and large unit cell systems, with the option of enabling single-crystal and polarised beam experiments.