A metal layer thinner than a single atom just made spin currents flow better

Spintronics — electronics that use the spin of electrons as well as their charge — promises computers that sip power and devices that harvest electricity from waste heat. Its weak point is the border where materials meet: spin currents fade as they cross it. At Kyushu University, Professor Hiromi Yuasa's team slipped an ultrathin layer of iridium manganese between a magnetic insulator and a platinum film, and found the sweet spot at 0.3 nanometres — so thin the metal forms islands rather than a sheet — where two key spin signals both strengthened measurably. The work, published in Materials Today Physics, points toward 'battery-free information devices, which pose no risk of battery explosions,' Yuasa says: gadgets that run on the spin Seebeck effect, turning a temperature difference directly into power.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation