Computers are hungry beasts. They devour vast amounts of power, especially when writing data to memory—a process that traditionally uses electric currents and generates wasteful heat. But what if we could control magnetic information storage with voltage instead? This approach is gaining traction as researchers seek more energy-efficient computing solutions for our data-hungry world.
In a paper published in Nature Communications, researchers from The Autonomous University of Barcelona have unveiled a novel nanoscale magnetic state they’ve dubbed a “vortion” (short for magneto-ionic vortex). This innovative approach uses voltage-controlled ion movement to create and manipulate swirling magnetic patterns at the nanoscale, potentially transforming how computers store and process information.
“This is a so far unexplored object at the nanoscale,” explains Jordi Sort, an ICREA researcher in the UAB Department of Physics and director of the research, in a statement. “There is a great demand for controlling magnetic states at the nanoscale but, surprisingly, most of the research in magneto-ionics has so far focused on the study of films of continuous materials. If we look at the effects of ion displacement in discrete structures of nanometer dimensions, the ‘nanodots’ we have analyzed, we see that very interesting dynamically evolving spin configurations appear, which are unique to these types of structures.”
The research team, led by scientists from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, has discovered a way to precisely control the magnetic properties of tiny dots of metal with extremely low power consumption. Their method allows for continuous, analog adjustment of magnetization—similar to turning a dimmer switch rather than flipping a binary on/off toggle—opening exciting possibilities for brain-inspired computing technologies.
How Vortions Work
At the heart of this innovation is a clever manipulation of nitrogen ions within specially engineered iron-cobalt-nitrogen (FeCoN) nanomagnets. By applying voltage, researchers can extract nitrogen ions from these tiny dots, transforming them from magnetically inert to magnetically active in controlled, gradual ways. This creates distinctive swirling magnetic patterns—vortices that can be precisely tuned and manipulated.
“With the ‘vortions’ we developed, we can have unprecedented control of magnetic properties such as magnetization, coercivity, remanence, anisotropy or the critical fields at which vortions are formed or annihilated. These are fundamental properties for storing information in magnetic memories, which we are now able to control and tune in an analog and reversible manner by a voltage-activated process with very low energy consumption,” explains Irena Spasojević, postdoctoral researcher in the UAB Department of Physics and first author of the paper.
Unlike traditional magnetic vortices, which are typically fixed in their properties once manufactured, these voltage-controlled vortions offer unprecedented flexibility. Their magnetic strength, stability, and behavior can all be adjusted after fabrication, eliminating the need for energy-intensive techniques like laser pulses or electrical currents to manipulate magnetic states.
“The voltage actuation procedure, instead of using electric current, prevents heating in devices such as laptops, servers and data centers, and it drastically reduces energy loss,” Spasojević adds.
The Brain-Computer Connection
Traditional computing relies on binary states—ones and zeros—but the human brain processes information in a much more nuanced, analog fashion with varying connection strengths between neurons. This new technology moves closer to brain-like computing by enabling analog states with continuous degrees of magnetization that can be adjusted with voltage, potentially leading to more efficient and sophisticated computing architectures.
By controlling how long voltage is applied, researchers can precisely adjust the thickness of the ferromagnetic layer, enabling transitions between different magnetic states—from nonmagnetic to single-domain to vortex states.
Researchers have shown that by precisely controlling the thickness of the voltage-generated magnetic layer, the magnetic state of the material can be varied at will, in a controlled and reversible manner, between a non-magnetic state, a state with a uniform magnetic orientation (such as that found in a magnet), and the new magneto-ionic vortex state.
From Lab to Applications
“We envision, for example, the integration of reconfigurable magneto-ionic vortices in neural networks as dynamic synapses, capable of mimicking the behavior of biological synapses,” Sort explains.
In the brain, the connections between neurons, the synapses, have different weights (intensities) that adapt dynamically according to the activity and learning process. Similarly, “vortions” could provide tuneable neuronal synaptic weights, reflected in reconfigurable magnetization or anisotropy values, for brain-inspired spintronic devices.
“The activity of biological neurons and synapses is also controlled by electrical signals and ion migration, analogous to our magneto-ionic units,” says Spasojević.
In current neuromorphic systems, one challenging aspect is creating and adjusting synaptic weights—the strength of connections between artificial neurons. Vortions could serve this function, with their magnetization strength controlled by voltage to represent different connection strengths.
The energy efficiency of this approach is particularly noteworthy. Conventional methods for manipulating magnetic states often require substantial energy input through electrical currents or laser pulses. The voltage-based control of vortions consumes minimal power, aligning with the urgent need to reduce energy consumption in information technologies as data processing demands continue to grow.
Researchers believe that, besides their impact in brain-inspired devices, analog computing or multi-state data storage systems, vortions may have other potential applications, including medical therapy techniques, data security, magnetic spin computing devices, and the generation of spin waves.
In a world increasingly dominated by data-hungry technologies from artificial intelligence to the Internet of Things, innovations that increase computational efficiency while reducing energy consumption have never been more important. Voltage-controlled vortions may soon join the arsenal of technologies helping to meet these challenges, swirling their way into the future of computing with an energy-efficient spin.
Source : https://studyfinds.org/new-magnetic-state-vortions/