With this magnetic technology, computer storage could become extremely fast and compact.

2024-09-01 06:00:08

Multiferroic materials, which combine electrical and magnetic properties, could revolutionize technology by enabling faster, more compact and energy-efficient devices. A recent study showed that ferroic iodide nickel (NiI2) is a promising candidate for these applications, due to its exceptional magnetoelectric coupling.

When researchers irradiate a thin layer of nickel iodide with an ultrafast laser pulse, corkscrew-shaped phenomena called “chiral helical magnetoelectric oscillations” appear. These phenomena could be useful for a range of applications, including fast and compact computer memories.
Image: Ella Maru Studio.

Led by researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and the Institute Max Planckthe study highlights light the special properties of nickel iodide, a material multiferroic. The materials Ferroic materials are known for their specific atomic alignments that give them electrical, magnetic or elastic properties. Multiferroics, on the other hand, exhibit several of these properties simultaneously, which can induce a phenomenon of magnetoelectric coupling. The latter makes it possible to manipulate the magnetic properties of a material via a electric field and vice versa, paving the way for major technological advances. The team, led by Frank Gao, discovered that NiI2 has a particularly strong magnetoelectric coupling. This result was obtained by irradiating samples of this material with ultrafast laser pulses and then observing the resulting changes in the electrical and magnetic orders. This discovery could transform the design of electronic devices by increasing their efficiency and reducing their size.

Emil Viñas Boström, co-author of the study, explains that two factors are essential to understanding the power of this coupling: on the one hand, the spin-orbit coupling, which links the spin of the electrons to their orbital motion around the atoms iodide; on the other hand, thearrangement specific magnetic field of NiI2, known as spiral or propeller spin. These features are crucial for the establishment of ferroelectric order and the strength of magnetoelectric coupling.

The potential applications of NiI2 are vast. Among them are magnetic memory for computers, which could become much faster and more energy-efficient thanks to this material. In addition, this coupling could improve connections in quantum computers, or be used in sensors high precision chemicals for thepharmaceutical industry.

The researchers hope that these findings will help identify other materials with similar properties and artificially strengthen the magnetoelectric coupling to maximize their potential.

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