Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered a surprising feature in two-dimensional (2D) magnets, a new class of materials receiving a great deal of attention. Their finding is the first verification that a signal long thought to be due to vibrations in the lattice – the structure of the material itself – is actually due to a wave of electron spins.
Some materials are composed of layers that interact very weakly, which allows scientists to pull apart or isolate individual layers and access atomically thin (on the order of a few nanometers), 2D sheets. For example, graphene was the first 2D material isolated from graphite. The more that scientists learn about these 2D materials, the closer they are to realizing potential applications, especially in next generation electronics and even quantum information.
The NIST team published their results today in Physical Review B.
Transistors are the building blocks of all modern-day electronics, where information is stored and transferred via movement of electrons. The flow of these electrons results in the generation of a significant amount of heating, which is why laptops get hot with extended use.
One prospect for solving this heat issue is using waves of spins, called magnons, as the information carrier in devices instead of moving electrons. Future technology based on magnons, or “magnonics,” would then ideally function with little to no heating.
The NIST work lays the foundation for future applications by establishing a measurement technique to study the fundamental physics of magnons. The NIST team says 2D device engineers will be particularly excited about the high frequency at which the magnon is observed. This is important in determining the switching speed in potential magnon-based devices (for example, devices that work in the THz rather t ..
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