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Pushing magnetic materials to the atomically-thin limit

, Pushing magnetic materials to the atomically-thin limit
Pushing magnetic materials to the atomically-thin limit

Researchers sandwiched two atomic layers of CrI3 between graphene contacts and measured the electron flow through the CrI3. Photo: Tiancheng Song

May 3, 2018

Magnetic materials are the backbone of modern digital information technologies, such as hard-disk storage. A UW-led team has now taken this one step further by encoding information using magnets that are just a few layers of atoms in thickness. This breakthrough may revolutionize both cloud computing technologies and consumer electronics by enabling data storage at a greater density and improved energy efficiency. In a study published in Science, the researchers report that they used stacks of ultrathin materials to exert unprecedented control over the flow of electrons based on the direction of their spins — where the electron “spins” are analogous to tiny, subatomic magnets. The team used instruments in CEI’s Research Training Testbed for this research. Read the full story featuring physics grad student Tiancheng Song and physics postdoc Xinghan Cai from CEI member faculty Xiaodong Xu’s lab here.

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