Communications of the ACM
Putting a New Spin on Computing Memory
Drexel University researchers are studying a new class of materials used in spintronic data storage.
Credit: Drexel Now
Drexel University researchers are studying a new class of materials that are used in spintronic data storage in an attempt to make computer memory more stable and more energy-conscious as devices continue to shrink.
Spintronic memory could be an alternative to conventional hard drives and random-access memory (RAM) because the material can rewrite itself to store data, which would make devices less power-intensive and more robust since the technology has fewer moving parts. "Spintronics could be an excellent, non-destructive alternative to current hard drive and RAM devices and one that saves a great deal of battery life," says Drexel alumnus Steven Spurgeon, whose work contributed to the research.
The researchers are studying the physical principles behind spintronics at the atomic scale to find materials that could be used in memory devices. They focused on the structure, chemistry, and magnetism in a layered thin film oxide material that has potential for spintronic data storage.
The researchers used a variety of high-resolution techniques to observe the material's behavior at the intersections of the layers, finding the parts of it that are ferroelectric. "Our methodology revealed that polarization varies throughout the material--it is not uniform," a discovery Spurgeon says is significant for spintronic applications because it suggests how the magnetic properties of the material can be tuned locally.
From Drexel Now
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