Accidental Discovery Produces Durable New Blue Pigment for Multiple Applications Nov 20, 2009
"We were exploring manganese oxides for some interesting electronic properties they have, something that can be both ferroelectric and ferromagnetic at the same time. Our work had nothing to do with looking for a pigment. "Then one day a graduate student who is working in the project was taking samples out of a very hot furnace while I was walking by, and it was blue, a very beautiful blue," he said. "I realized immediately that something amazing had happened. " What had happened, the... (Science Daily)
MRAM chips go serial in smart meters Nov 17, 2009
MRAM does not store data as a charge but rather in the magnetic polarization of a ferromagnetic plate. Two plates are separated by an insulating layer, the bottom layer pinned to a particular magnetic polarity. (EETimes)
All-electric Spintronics Created Oct 31, 2009
30, 2009) A multidisciplinary team of UC researchers is the first to find an innovative and novel way to control an electron's spin orientation using purely electrical means. Their findings were recently published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. (Science Daily)
Graphite can mimic iron's magnetism Oct 6, 2009
It is unexpected that graphite is ferromagnetic. The researchers Jiri Cervenka and Kees Flipse (Eindhoven University of Technology) and Mikhail Katsnelson (Radboud University Nijmegen) demonstrated direct evidence for ferromagnetic order and explain the underlying mechanism ... The electrons in the defect regions behave differently compared to the ordered areas, showing similarities with the electron behaviour of ferromagnetic materials like iron and cobalt. (India Times, India)
Magnetism Observed In Gas For The First Time Sep 18, 2009
Specifically, the team observed the ferromagnetic behavior in a gas of lithium atoms cooled to 150 billionth of 1 Kelvin above absolute zero (-273 degrees C or -459 degrees F) ... For decades, scientists have debated whether it is in principle possible for a gas or liquid of fermions, which are not in a periodic crystal, to become ferromagnetic ... When they gradually increased the repulsive forces between the atoms, they observed several features indicating that the gas has become... (Science Daily)
New Graphene-based, Nano-material Has Magnetic Properties Sep 6, 2009
The resulting ferromagnetic graphone sheet will have unprecedented possibilities for the applications of graphene-based materials, said Qiang Sun, Ph ... Ferromagnetic graphone sheet. (Science Daily)
Graphene made magnetic with hydrogen coating Sep 4, 2009
Researchers say hydrogen can be used to fine-tune graphene's metallic, semiconductor and magnetic properties, resulting in either graphene (metallic), graphane (semiconducting) or graphone (ferromagnetic). "Dangling bonds of carbon carry a magnetic moment, and these can be aligned ferromagnetically," said professor Purusottam Jena of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond ... "When graphene is fully saturated with hydrogen, all the dangling bonds disappear and conducting graphene turns... (EETimes)
Silicon With Afterburners: New Process Could Be Boon To Electronics Manufacturer Jul 25, 2009
ScienceDaily (July 24, 2009) Scientists at Rice University and North Carolina State University have found a method of attaching molecules to semiconducting silicon that may help manufacturers reach beyond the current limits of Moore's Law as they make microprocessors both smaller and more powerful. Moore's Law, suggested by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965, said the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles about every two years. (Science Daily)
Researchers aim at post-DRAM era Jul 16, 2009
For the same reason, the researchers are looking at magnetization changes in ferromagnetic materials. With regard to magnetic memories, a Forschungszentrum Rossendorf spokesperson said their approach aims at achieving the magnetizing effect directly through current instead of through magnetic fields which would enable technologists to shrink devices far beyond current MRAM approaches. (EETimes)
Unexpectedly long-range effects in advanced magnetic devices Jul 2, 2009
The key trick is to cover a thin layer of a ferromagnetic material, in which the magnetic direction of electrons, or "spins," tend to order themselves in the same direction, with an antiferromagnetic layer in which the spins tend to orient in opposite directions. By itself, the ferromagnetic layer will tend to magnetize in the direction of an externally imposed magnetic fieldand just as easily magnetize in the opposite direction if the external field is reversed ... For reasons that are still... (EurekAlert!)
Spintronic – The New Electronic? Jun 26, 2009
ScienceDaily (June 25, 2009) Researchers have developed novel concept devices using ferromagnetic semiconductors ... Finally, spintronic devices have excellent scalability, because they are based on ferromagnetic semiconductors, and semiconductor manufacturing technologies are well established ... There were four strands to the team s work: writing information to ferromagnetic semiconductors, retrieving it, high-speed switching between different states and the theoretical modelling of the... (Science Daily)
'Colossal' Magnetic Effect Advances Computing Jun 6, 2009
The researchers found that when a manganite was subjected to conditions above 230,000 times atmospheric pressure it underwent a transition in which its magnetic ordering changed from a ferromagnetic type (electron spins aligned) to an antiferromagnetic type (electron spins opposed) ... A consequence of this is that the overall ferromagnetic interactions in the system occur in a plane (two dimensions) rather than in three dimensions, which produces a non-uniform redistribution of electrons ...... (Science Daily)
Nanophysicists find unexpected magnetic effect Apr 30, 2009
In new research appearing this week in the journal Nature, physicists at Spain's University of Alicante and at Rice University in Houston have found that single-atom contacts made of ferromagnetic metals like iron, cobalt and nickel behave very differently than do slightly larger versions that are on the order of the devices used in today's electronic gadgets ... But in the 1930s, scientists found that adding even trace amounts of ferromagnetic metals like iron would throw off this effect ...... (EurekAlert!)
Argonne scientists pinpoint mechanism to increase magnetic response of ferromagnetic semiconductor Feb 26, 2009
Under ambient pressure, Europium oxide becomes ferromagnetic only below 69 Kelvin, limiting its applications ... "EuO is a ferromagnetic semiconductor and is a material that can carry spin polarized currents, which is an integral element of future devices aimed at manipulating both the spin and the charge of electrons in new generation microelectronics," Argonne's Postdoctoral researcher Narcizo Souza-Neto said. (EurekAlert!)
Now, an MRI-compatible pacemaker Feb 25, 2009
All ferromagnetic components metals that get attracted to a magnet have been changed. Medical device experts say geometric changes have been made to the wire that connects the machine to the heart. (India Times, India)
Compact Biosensor For Wide-ranging Applications Under Development Feb 19, 2009
Dr. Baselt looked specifically at a type of GMR called multilayer GMR in which the resistance of two thin antiferromagnetically exchange-coupled layers, separated by a thin non-magnetic conducting layer, can be altered by changing the moments of the ferromagnetic layers from anti-parallel to parallel. This change decreases the spin-dependent interfacial scattering of charge carriers resulting in a decrease in the resistance of the GMR material. (Science Daily)
Nature Materials Feb 8, 2009
The spin injection efficiency from a ferromagnetic electrode into an organic layer has been successfully probed by two purpose-made techniques. The observed spin diffusion lengths of tens of nanometres hold promise for potential spintronics applications. (Nature News Service)
