With the rapid advance of miniaturization, data processing using electric currents faces tough challenges, some of which are insurmountable. Magnetic spin waves are a promising alternative for the transfer of information in even more compact chips. Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), as part of an international research venture, have now succeeded in generating spin waves with extremely short wavelengths in the nanometer range - a key feature for their future application.
Smaller, faster, more energy-efficient - this is the mantra for the further development of computers and mobile telephones which is currently progressing at a breathtaking pace. However, Dr. Sebastian Wintz of the HZDR Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research knows only too well, how difficult it already is to achieve any further degree of miniaturization. "One major problem with current technologies," he said, "is the heat which is generated when data are transmitted with the aid of electric currents. We need a new concept." The physicist is working with international colleagues on so-called spin waves (magnons) which are set to replace moving charges in the future as information carriers. The scientists have now succeeded for the first time in generating spin waves of such short wavelengths that they have potential for future applications in data processing.
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