Reviewed by Victoria SmithOct 23 2024
A research team from Pohang University of Science and Technology has broken new ground in significantly improving spin wave harnessing technology's commercial viability. This innovation addresses the ongoing problem of heat generation in electrical gadgets and is being hailed as a next-generation technological answer. The study was published in the journal Matter.
Schematic illustration of spin wave transmission characteristics with and without nanostructures. Image Credit: Pohang University of Science and Technology
Long-term use of computers and smartphones can cause them to get hot. Overheating results from electron movement in the device due to data processing and storage, which creates an energy-to-heat conversion. Cloud computing and artificial intelligence are becoming more advanced, and electronics are becoming more complex and smaller, intensifying overheating.
Using “spin waves” in information transmission technology is becoming a popular solution to heat generation in electronic devices. By taking advantage of the spin properties of electrons in magnetic insulators, spin waves can communicate information without the need for electron flow.
Recent studies show that the efficiency of spin waves in conveying information increases when the temperature imbalance of the waves in a material increases. This imbalance is due to the tendency of the waves on one side of the material to become hotter and the waves on the other side to become colder. However, the temperature of spin waves cannot be independently controlled by any method.
A collaborative research team from Chungnam National University, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and POSTECH has developed an innovative approach inspired by automobile radiator cooling fins. The team integrated nanometer-scale gold structures at one end of a thin magnetic insulator film, creating a system that can efficiently regulate temperature dependent on the concentration of the gold.
The gold structures significantly lowered the temperature of spin waves at the targeted location, generating a temperature imbalance within the material. In their experiments, the team showed that this thin film enhanced spin wave transfer efficiency by more than 250 % compared to conventional techniques.
This study is the first to achieve independent control of spin wave temperature and to demonstrate a method for improving spin wave transfer efficiency through this temperature control.
Professor Hyungyu Jin of POSTECH who led the research expressed the significance of the research: “This research represents a significant milestone in developing next-generation information transfer technologies to address heat generation in electronics.”
By overcoming previous limitations, this technology has promising potential for a wide range of future applications using spin waves.
Dr. Sang Jun Park, Study Lead Author, Pohang University of Science and Technology
Professor Hyungyu Jin and Dr. Sang Jun Park, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute for Materials Science, Japan, led the team from POSTECH's Department of Mechanical Engineering.
They worked with a research team led by Professor Se Kwon Kim from the Department of Physics at KAIST and Professor Jong-Ryul Jeong from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Chungnam National University.
Journal Reference:
Park, S. J., et al. (2024) Enhancing spin pumping by nonlocal manipulation of magnon temperature. Matter. doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2024.08.023.