An international research team, led by the University of Buffalo, has reported on the potential advancement of graphene magnetic properties. The researchers describe in their work how they coated a magnet with graphene, and how they inspired what they describe as a “synthetic magnetic texture” in the non-electromagnetic material.
The image shows eight electrons surrounded by a 20-nanometer-thick magnet (white rectangle) and graphene (white dotted line). Credit: University at Buffalo.
“Independently, graphene and spintronics have an incredible ability to fundamentally change all aspects of business and society. But if you can combine the two, the synergistic effects seem to be something this world has not yet seen, ”says lead author Nargess Arabchigavkani, who conducted the research as a PhD candidate at UB and is now a postgraduate research study at SUNY Polytechnic Institute.
For their experiments, the researchers placed a 20-nanometer-thick magnet in direct contact with a sheet of graphene. “To make you aware of the size difference, it’s something like putting a brick on a sheet of paper,” says study lead author Jonathan Bird, PhD, professor and chair of electrical engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences UB.
Researchers then placed eight electrodes in different locations around the graphene and magnet to measure their conductivity.
The lightning strikes – the magnet stimulated an artificial magnetic texture in the graphene that stood even in areas of the graphene away from the magnet. Simply put, the close communication between the two objects caused the normal non-electromagnetic carbon to behave differently, exhibiting magnetic properties similar to common magnetic materials such as iron or cobalt.
Moreover, it has been found that these properties can completely overwhelm the natural properties of graphene, even when you look several microns away from the contact area of the graphene and the magnet. This distance (a micron is a millionth of a million meters), while very small, is relatively large speaking microscopically.
The findings of this work raise important questions related to the microscopic origins of the magnetic texture in graphene.
More importantly, Bird says, the extent to which the induced magnetic behavior arises from the influence of spin polarization and / or spin-orbit bonding, which is a phenomenon known to be closely related to the magnetic properties of materials and to the technology emerging spintronics.
Instead of using the electric charge that electrons carry (as in traditional electronics), spintronic machines try to take possession of a special quantum property of electrons called spin (which seems to be to the ground spinning on its own axis). Spin offers the ability to pack more data into smaller devices, thus increasing the power of semiconductors, quantum computers, large storage devices and other digital electronics.
Additional authors of the study represent UB, King Mongkut Ladkrabang Institute of Technology in Thailand, Chiba University in Japan, China University of Science and Technology, Nebraska Omaha University, University of Nebraska Lincoln, and Uppsala University in Sweden.