Computers process and transfer data through electrical currents passing through tiny circuits and wires. As these currents meet with resistance, they create heat that can undermine the efficiency and even the safety of these devices.
To minimize heat loss and optimize performance for low-power technology, researchers are exploring other ways to process information that could be more energy-efficient. One approach that researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are exploring involves manipulating the magnetic spin of electrons, a scientific field known as spintronics.
"In spintronics, you can think of information as a magnet pointing one way and another magnet pointing in the opposite direction," said Argonne materials scientist Axel Hoffman. "We're interested in how we can use magnetic excitation in applications because processing information this way expends less energy than carrying information through an electrical charge."
In a report published in Nano Letters, Hoffman and fellow researchers reveal new insights into the properties of a magnetic insulator that is a candidate for low-power device applications; their insights form early stepping-stones towards developing high-speed, low-power electronics that use electron spin rather than charge to carry information.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-05-insights-dynamics-material-candidate-low-power.html#jCp
Computers process and transfer data through electrical currents passing through tiny circuits and wires. As these currents meet with resistance, they create heat that can undermine the efficiency and even the safety of these devices.
To minimize heat loss and optimize performance for low-power technology, researchers are exploring other ways to process information that could be more energy-efficient. One approach that researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are exploring involves manipulating the magnetic spin of electrons, a scientific field known as spintronics.
"In spintronics, you can think of information as a magnet pointing one way and another magnet pointing in the opposite direction," said Argonne materials scientist Axel Hoffman. "We're interested in how we can use magnetic excitation in applications because processing information this way expends less energy than carrying information through an electrical charge."
In a report published in Nano Letters, Hoffman and fellow researchers reveal new insights into the properties of a magnetic insulator that is a candidate for low-power device applications; their insightsform early stepping-stones towards developing high-speed, low-power electronics that use electron spin rather than charge to carry information.