A magnetic switch with lower energy consumption developed in collaboration with the UAB

by Virginia Greco

A joint research conducted by the UAB and involving the ICN2 has demonstrated the possibility to switch magnetic polarization by voltage in a new class of easy-to-fabricate materials containing nitrogen. These results may be used to reduce energy consumption in electronic technologies.

Magnetic materials are largely used in electronic devices, such as mobile phones and computers, to store information in the binary number system. In fact, by changing the polarization of a magnet, it is possible to make it switch between two configurations that can be assigned respectively to a “0” or a “1”. The operation of changing the magnetic orientation (essentially writing or rewriting data) in electronics requires energy, a part of which is wasted in the form of heat. A possible way to avoid this energy loss is to use magnetic materials which can rely on voltage to change the polarization.

A collaborative study conducted by researchers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Georgetown University, HZDR Dresden, the National Centre of Microelectronics of Madrid and Barcelona, the University of Grenoble, and the ICN2 — recently published in Nature Communications — has shown that it is possible to switch magnetism on and off in metals containing nitrogen (that is, to generate or remove all magnetic features of this material) with voltage.

More details of this research are available in the original news item shared by the AUB.