Thermal research on magnetization at the nanoscale to advance deep space probes, spintronic devices, etc.

06/12/2015 - 00:00

By Rick Kubetz -

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have uncovered physical mechanisms allowing the manipulation of magnetic information with heat. These new phenomena rely on the transport of thermal energy, in contrast to the conventional application of magnetic fields, providing a new, and highly desirable way to manipulate magnetization at the nanoscale.

“In our study, we make use of the fact that a heat current passing through a magnetic material creates a separation of electron spins.

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Ref: Thermal spin-transfer torque driven by the spin-dependent Seebeck effect in metallic spin-valves. Nature Physics (2015) | DOI:10.1038/nphys3355