Ion beams pave way to new kinds of valves for use in spintronics
Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have tested a new approach to fabricating spin valves. Using ion beams, the researchers have succeeded in structuring an iron aluminium alloy in such a way as to subdivide the material into individually magnetizable regions at the nanometer scale. The prepared alloy is thus able to function as a spin valve, which is of great interest as a candidate component for use in spintronics. Not only does this technology use electron charge for purposes of information storage and processing, it also draws on its inherent magnetic properties (that is, its spin). Spintronics holds great potential for magnetic storage media. For example, with magnetic random access memories a computer's time-consuming start-up phase may cease to be an issue – as in that case it would be operational as soon as it is switched on.