A research team led by Brown University has developed a way to make an ultrathin electronic material retain the electrical and magnetic properties that could make it useful in lower-power computer chips, the university announced Oct. 28.
The team worked with bismuth ferrite, a material whose electrical and magnetic behavior are connected. Those properties interest researchers trying to write data with small voltage pulses and read it magnetically.
Such materials often stop working as intended when made thin enough for a chip. The researchers used a supporting crystal layer to compress the film and a metallic layer to control stray electrical fields, according to the university's account.
Brown assistant engineering professor Lucas Caretta led the international team, which included collaborators at Cornell, Rice and Germany's University of Mainz. The work was published in Nature Materials.
A version of the paper posted by the authors identifies a remaining hurdle: directly demonstrating that voltage can reverse the new magnetic behavior. Their early attempts were limited by electrical polarization fading quickly. The experiments used laboratory films, not a working computer chip.