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Posted on: 3/1/2013 12:00:00 AM... Researchers at Penn State University have designed a special material interface that has been shown to add to and improve the functioning of non-silicon-based electronic devices, such as those used in certain kinds of random access memory (RAM).

Most electronic chips today use silicon transistors to process "logical states,"—the binary system of ones and zeros used by computers. In this system, the numeral 1 can be understood as "on"—with a current of electrons flowing freely—and the numeral 0 as "off"—with a current blocked. In recent years, researchers have been experimenting with different, non-silicon materials that can toggle between a multilevel state system, while also functioning with greater speed and less power consumption than possible with current technology.

The Penn State team reports that it has designed and tested an alternative way of creating a device that is compatible with non-silicon technology. Their goal was to create a multifunctional device with improved function by adding a ferroelectric-magnetic interface. This consists of a ferroelectric layer replacing the insulator barrier and a special interface layer built into the device that can change from metal to insulator, as well as from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic, in response to the negative or positive charge polarization of the barrier.

The oxide materials used to build the interface are "multiferroic"—one side magnetic and the other ferroelectric. Ferroelectric materials have a spontaneous electric polarization of negative and positive charges that can be reversed. On the other hand, ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, form permanent magnets with magnetization direction also reversible. The researchers note that because their new interface combines both magnetic and ferroelectric properties and utilizes the coupling effect between the two, they can reproduce a binary system with a much larger resistance difference between the two charge-polarization directions.Iin fact, their technology has demonstrated a 10,000 percent enhancement of the binary system. This offers potential for fewer memory errors and better and faster information processing and storage power.

For More Information:

• Access “Enhanced Tunnelling Electroresistance Effect due to a Ferroelectrically Induced Phase Transition at a Magnetic Complex Oxide Interface”

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