For decades, scientists have been studying a group of unusual materials called multiferroics that could be useful for a range of applications including computer memory, chemical sensors and quantum computers.
In a study published in Nature, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) demonstrated that the layered multiferroic material nickel iodide (NiI2) may be the best candidate yet for devices that are extremely fast and compact.
Multiferroics have a special property called magnetoelectric coupling, which means that you can manipulate magnetic properties of the material with an electric field and vice versa, electric properties with magnetic fields. The researchers found NiI2 has greater magnetoelectric coupling than any known material of its kind, making it a prime candidate for technology advances.
"Unveiling these effects at the scale of atomically thin nickel iodide flakes was a formidable challenge," said Frank Gao, a postdoctoral fellow in physics at UT and co-lead author of the paper, "but our success presents a significant advancement in the field of multiferroics."
"Our discovery paves the way for extremely fast and energy-efficient magnetoelectric devices, including magnetic memories," added graduate student Xinyue Peng, the project's other co-lead author.
To read more, click here.