For decades, ferromagnetic materials have driven technologies like magnetic hard drives, magnetic random access memories and oscillators. Bu
"For decades, ferromagnetic materials have driven technologies like magnetic hard drives, magnetic random access memories and oscillators. But antiferromagnetic materials, if only they could be harnessed, hold out even greater promise: ultra-fast information transfer and communications at much higher frequencies—a "holy grail" for physicists.
Now, researchers have taken a meaningful step towards utilizing antiferromagnets for new technologies. In "Spin-filter tunneling detection of antiferromagnetic resonance with electrically-tunable damping," published in Science, they describe their innovative approach for both detecting and controlling the motion of spins within antiferromagnets using 2D antiferromagnetic materials and tunnel junctions.
Both types of materials contain atoms that act like tiny individual magnets, each having "spin." In a ferromagnet, all of these atomic spins are aligned, producing an external magnetic field. In an antiferromagnet, atomic spins cancel when they are added up, so no external magnetic field is produced. That's why it's difficult to not only detect the motions of spins within antiferromagnets but also control the motion of their spins."
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