Researchers from the University of Minnesota and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States
In spintronic devices, in contrast to conventionalelectronics, energy or information is transferred not by the charge of the electron, but by the direction of its rotation (spin). Spintronic materials have been successfully integrated into semiconductor microcircuits for more than 10 years. But the standard material, cobalt-iron-boron, has reached the limit of scalability: it is impossible to create devices smaller than 20 nm that retain the ability to store data.
In a study published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, they showed that the iron-palladium material requiresLess power and has the potential for more storage.Such devices can be reduced to a size of 5 nm, four times smaller than current analogues.
In the experiment, the researchers grew an iron-palladium element on a silicon wafer using an 8-inch multi-chamber UHV sputtering system.
This work shows for the first time in the world that it is possible to grow a material that can be reduced to a size of less than five nm on a substrate compatible with the semiconductor industry.
Deyuan Liu, study co-author
The semiconductor industry is constantly trying to develop smaller and smaller chips that canMaximize energy efficiency, compute speed, and storage capacity in electronic devices.Spintronics devices can be non-volatile: they require less energy and canStore memory and perform calculations even after a power outage.
The researchers believe that the proposed technology could revolutionize the electronics industry.
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