Breakthrough in Magnonics? Discovery of a New Property in Quantum Materials

Representation of magnonic waves at the edges of a 2D van der Waals material (highlighted in green). The arrows symbolize the magnetic moments, which are arranged in three layers of honeycomb lattice. Copyright: Forschungszentrum Jülich

Scientists from Jülich, together with colleagues from Germany, France and China, have discovered a new property in quantum materials offering great potential for novel technical applications. It took the 17-member team a considerable amount of dedicated effort to synthesize and characterize so-called two-dimensional materials, that could one day take on a wide variety of functions in atomically thin circuits based on the future technology of magnonics. At present, this is still basic research, but in the future, it should simplify the targeted development of related materials with a wide range of useful properties. If successful, magnonic devices could be integrated into semiconductor technology, allowing for lower energy consumption and novel functions.