Our data-driven world demands more—more capacity, more efficiency, more computing power. To meet society's insatiable need for electronic speed, physicists have been pushing the burgeoning field of spintronics.
Traditional electronics use the charge of electrons to encode, store and transmit information. Spintronic devices utilize both the charge and spin-orientation of electrons. By assigning a value to electron spin (up=0 and down=1), spintronic devices offer ultra-fast, energy-efficient platforms.
To develop viable spintronics, physicists must understand the quantum properties within materials. One property, known as spin-torque, is crucial for the electrical manipulation of magnetization that's required for the next generation of storage and processing technologies.
Researchers at the University of Utah and the University of California, Irvine (UCI), have discovered a new type of spin–orbit torque. The study, published in Nature Nanotechnology on Jan. 15, 2025, demonstrates a new way to manipulate spin and magnetization through electrical currents, a phenomenon that they've dubbed the anomalous Hall torque.
"This is brand new physics, which on its own is interesting, but there's also a lot of potential new applications that go along with it," said Eric Montoya, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Utah and lead author of the study. "These self-generated spin-torques are uniquely qualified for new types of computing like neuromorphic computing, an emerging system that mimics human brain networks."
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