Harnessing Magnetic Vortices for Next Generation Electronics

Scientists may have found a way to create tiny, but more powerful, signal-generating or receiving antennas and other electronics. They're seeking ways to synchronize the magnetic spins in nanoscale devices, and they may have just found a method.

The aim of the so-called "spintronic" technology revolution is to harness the power of an electron's spin, the property responsible for magnetism, rather than its negative charge. In this case, the researchers found that stacked nanoscale magnetic vortices separated by an extremely thin layer of copper can operate in unison, potentially producing a powerful signal that could be used in a new generation of cell phones and other devices.

"Almost all of today's electronic technology, from the light bulb to the smartphone, involves the movement of charge," said Javier Pulecio, one of the researchers, in a news release. "But harnessing spin could open the door for much more compact and novel types of antennas that act as spin wave emitters, signal generators-such as the clocks that synchronize everything that goes on inside a computer-as well as memory and logic devices."

The secret to harnessing spin is to control its evolution and spin configuration. By shrinking down a magnetic, scientists may be able to do just that. A magnetic disc with a radius of just 500 nanometers and a thickness of 25 nanometers, for example, couldn't support multiple domains, and the spins align in a hurricane-like rotational pattern to reduce overall magnetic energy. The spins parallel to the disc's surface rotate around a core either clockwise or counterclockwise. At the core, the magnetic spins point out of the disc's surface, either up or down. This structure, a magnetic vortex, has four possible states-up or down paired with clockwise or anticlockwise.

"Magnetic vortex-based oscillators can be tuned to operate at different narrowly defined frequencies, making theme extremely flexible for telecommunications applications," said Pulecio in a news release.

That said the power output of these spintronic devices is relatively small compared with oscillator technologies currently in use. Even so, scientists are making strides when it comes to overcoming power limitations; by stacking magnetic vortices, the researchers have managed to take another step toward beating this challenge.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.