Communications of the ACM
Researchers Tap Antiferromagnets for Better RAM
Antiferromagnets, which have virtually no magnetic effects on their environment, could find use in state-of-the-art magnetoresistive random-access memory, which stores data using permanent magnets.
Credit: Erik Vrielink
An international team of scientists has found that antiferromagnets could make computer memory significantly faster and more efficient.
Magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) could employ antiferromagnets instead of ferromagnets, avoiding disruption by external magnetic fields and limited density scalability.
Antiferromagnets' magnetic properties also suggest antiferromagnet-equipped MRAM can write and rewrite data thousands of times faster than ferromagnet-based MRAM.
The team exposed antiferromagnetic crystals of nickel oxide to femtosecond-fast laser pulses, and observed that domain walls could help couple different frequencies of normally non-interactive spin waves across different domains.
Coupling spin waves' constituent magnons could potentially help transfer data within an antiferromagnet, and facilitate ultrafast magnon-based computing with very limited energy dissipation.
From IEEE Spectrum
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Abstracts Copyright © 2021 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
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