Study identifies metallic antiferromagnet with potential for memory devicesAntiferromagnets have gen

Study identifies metallic antiferromagnet with potential for memory devicesAntiferromagnets have generated significant interest for future computing technologies due to their fast dynamics, their ability to generate and detect spin-polarized electric currents, and their robustness against external magnetic fields. Despite these bright prospects, the vanishing total magnetization in antiferromagnets makes it difficult to evaluate their internal magnetic structure compared with their ferromagnetic counterparts.Limited understanding of the internal magnetic structure of antiferromagnetic materials and devices is a major obstacle to manipulating and efficiently utilizing variations in their magnetic state. In work that sheds light on a new set of antiferromagnetic materials, an international research team led by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the United States Naval Research Laboratory, the Johns Hopkins University, the Institute for Solid State Physics (ISSP), and the University of Tokyo have identified a metallic antiferromagnet (Mn3Sn) that exhibits a large spontaneous magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE), despite a vanishing total magnetization at room temperature. A metallic antiferromagnet with a large spontaneous MOKE promises to be a vital tool for future antiferromagnetic memory devices, where the device state could be read optically and switched either optically or with a spin-polarized electric current.Read more. -- source link

More pics about