Revolutionizing Tomorrow: Meet the Scientists Shaping the Future of Electronics!

Scientists Changing the Future of Electronics

How Scientists Are Changing the Future of Electronics

Researchers have crafted an avant-garde material that leverages distinctive spin-related properties through the innovative twisting of graphene and tungsten selenide layers.

This cutting-edge approach in spintronics holds the potential to transform the landscape of advanced electronic devices, facilitating the seamless integration of magnetic memories into processors while overcoming existing challenges in managing spin currents.

Scientists Changing the Future of Electronics: Revolutionary Advances in Spintronics Material

Collaborating with scholars from Charles University in Prague and the CFM (CSIC-UPV/EHU) center in San Sebastian, the Nanodevices group at CIC nanoGUNE has developed a novel material with unprecedented properties in spintronics. This breakthrough, featured in Nature Materials, unlocks a wealth of new opportunities for crafting more sophisticated, efficient electronic devices that integrate magnetic memories with processing units.

The emergence of two-dimensional materials with unique characteristics has spurred a surge of interest in these materials, especially as new effects arise when stacking two layers to form a heterostructure. Recent findings reveal that even subtle rotations of these layers can dramatically alter the heterostructure’s properties.

Pioneering Twisting Method in Material Stacking

“In our study, we examined the layering of graphene and tungsten selenide (WSe2),” explained Ikerbasque Research Professor Félix Casanova, co-leader of nanoGUNE’s Nanodevices group and principal investigator of this research. “When the layers are precisely aligned and rotated at a specific angle, a spin current emerges in a desired direction,” Casanova elaborated.

Spin—a fundamental property of electrons and other subatomic particles—is typically transmitted in a direction perpendicular to the electric current. Controlling these spin currents represents a core challenge in spintronics, a branch of electronics that employs spin to store, process, and transmit data. Yet, “our findings demonstrate that this limitation vanishes with the use of appropriate materials,” emphasized Félix Casanova.

Significance for Next-Generation Electronic Devices

Casanova further noted, “By merely stacking two layers and applying an optimal ‘magic’ twist, we can induce new spin-related properties absent in the original materials.” He added, “Greater flexibility in material selection leads to more diverse design possibilities for future devices.”

Reference

“Twist-angle-tunable spin texture in WSe2/graphene van der Waals heterostructures” by Haozhe Yang, Beatriz Martín-García, Jozef Kimák, Eva Schmoranzerová, Eoin Dolan, Zhendong Chi, Marco Gobbi, Petr Němec, Luis E. Hueso, and Fèlix Casanova, 27 August 2024, Nature Materials.
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-024-01985-y.