Toward more efficient computing, with magnetic waves

Toward more efficient computing, with magnetic waves

MIT researchers have devised a novel circuit design that enables precise control of computing with magnetic waves -- with no electricity needed. The advance takes a step toward practical magnetic-based devices, which have the potential to compute far more efficiently than electronics.

Classical computers rely on massive amounts of electricity for computing and data storage, and generate a lot of wasted heat. In search of more efficient alternatives, researchers have started designing magnetic-based "spintronic" devices, which use relatively little electricity and generate practically no heat.

Spintronic devices leverage the "spin wave" -- a quantum property of electrons -- in magnetic materials with a lattice structure. This approach involves modulating the spin wave properties to produce some measurable output that can be correlated to computation. Until now, modulating spin waves has required injected electrical currents using bulky components that can cause signal noise and effectively negate any inherent performance gains.

The MIT researchers developed a circuit architecture that uses only a nanometer-wide domain wall in layered nanofilms of magnetic material to modulate a passing spin wave, without any extra components or electrical current. In turn, the spin wave can be tuned to control the location of the wall, as needed. This provides precise control of two changing spin wave states, which correspond to the 1s and 0s used in classical computing.

In the future, pairs of spin waves could be fed into the circuit through dual channels, modulated for different properties, and combined to generate some measurable quantum interference -- similar to how photon wave interference is used for quantum computing. Researchers hypothesize that such interference-based spintronic devices, like quantum computers, could execute highly complex tasks that conventional computers struggle with.

"People are beginning to look for computing beyond silicon. Wave computing is a promising alternative," says Luqiao Liu, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and principal investigator of the Spintronic Material and Device Group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics. "By using this narrow domain wall, we can modulate the spin wave and create these two separate states, without any real energy costs. We just rely on spin waves and intrinsic magnetic material."

Joining Liu on the paper are Jiahao Han, Pengxiang Zhang, and Justin T. Hou, three graduate students in the Spintronic Material and Device Group; and EECS postdoc Saima A. Siddiqui.

Flipping magnons

Spin waves are ripples of energy with small wavelengths. Chunks of the spin wave, which are essentially the collective spin of many electrons, are called magnons. While magnons are not true particles, like individual electrons, they can be measured similarly for computing applications.

In their work, the researchers utilized a customized "magnetic domain wall," a nanometer-sized barrier between two neighboring magnetic structures. They layered a pattern of cobalt/nickel nanofilms -- each a few atoms thick -- with certain desirable magnetic properties that can handle a high volume of spin waves. Then they placed the wall in the middle of a magnetic material with a special lattice structure, and incorporated the system into a circuit.

On one side of the circuit, the researchers excited constant spin waves in the material. As the wave passes through the wall, its magnons immediately spin in the opposite direction: Magnons in the first region spin north, while those in the second region -- past the wall -- spin south. This causes the dramatic shift in the wave's phase (angle) and slight decrease in magnitude (power).

In experiments, the researchers placed a separate antenna on the opposite side of the circuit, that detects and transmits an output signal. Results indicated that, at its output state, the phase of the input wave flipped 180 degrees. The wave's magnitude -- measured from highest to lowest peak -- had also decreased by a significant amount.

Adding some torque

Then, the researchers discovered a mutual interaction between spin wave and domain wall that enabled them to efficiently toggle between two states. Without the domain wall, the circuit would be uniformly magnetized; with the domain wall, the circuit has a split, modulated wave.

By controlling the spin wave, they found they could control the position of the domain wall. This relies on a phenomenon called, "spin-transfer torque," which is when spinning electrons essentially jolt a magnetic material to flip its magnetic orientation.

In the researchers' work, they boosted the power of injected spin waves to induce a certain spin of the magnons. This actually draws the wall toward the boosted wave source. In doing so, the wall gets jammed under the antenna -- effectively making it unable to modulate waves and ensuring uniform magnetization in this state.

Using a special magnetic microscope, they showed that this method causes a micrometer-size shift in the wall, which is enough to position it anywhere along the material block. Notably, the mechanism of magnon spin-transfer torque was proposed, but not demonstrated, a few years ago. "There was good reason to think this would happen," Liu says. "But our experiments prove what will actually occur under these conditions."

The whole circuit is like a water pipe, Liu says. The valve (domain wall) controls how the water (spin wave) flows through the pipe (material). "But you can also imagine making water pressure so high, it breaks the valve off and pushes it downstream," Liu says. "If we apply a strong enough spin wave, we can move the position of domain wall -- except it moves slightly upstream, not downstream."

Such innovations could enable practical wave-based computing for specific tasks, such as the signal-processing technique, called "fast Fourier transform." Next, the researchers hope to build a working wave circuit that can execute basic computations. Among other things, they have to optimize materials, reduce potential signal noise, and further study how fast they can switch between states by moving around the domain wall. "That's next on our to-do list," Liu says.

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Materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Original written by Rob Matheson. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Earth's magnetic song recorded for the first time during a solar storm

Solar winds

The song comes from waves that are generated in the Earth's magnetic field by the collision of the storm. The storm itself is the eruption of electrically charged particles from the sun's atmosphere.

A team led by Lucile Turc, a former ESA research fellow who is now based at the University of Helsinki, Finland, made the discovery after analyzing data from the Cluster Science Archive. The archive provides access to all data obtained during Cluster's ongoing mission over almost two decades.

Cluster consists of four spacecraft that orbit Earth in formation, investigating our planet's magnetic environment and its interaction with the solar wind—a constant flow of particles released by the sun into the Solar System.

As part of their orbits, the Cluster spacecraft repeatedly fly through the foreshock, which is the first region that particles encounter when a solar storm hits our planet. The team found that in the early part of the mission, from 2001 to 2005, the spacecraft flew through six such collisions, recording the waves that were generated.

The new analysis shows that, during the collision, the foreshock is driven to release magnetic waves that are much more complex than first thought.The magnetic waves measured by ESA’s Cluster mission in the magnetic foreshock above Earth – the first region of our planet’s magnetic environment that solar wind particles encounter – during calm space weather conditions. The video contains a ‘sonification’ of the magnetic waves in the undisturbed foreshock, obtained by transforming the frequencies of these magnetic waves into audible signals. In the undisturbed foreshock, the sounds are very low pitch and monotonous. Credit: ESA/Cluster; L. Turc et al. (2019); Audio: Martin Archer, Queen Mary University of London, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

"Our study reveals that solar storms profoundly modify the foreshock region," says Lucile.

When the frequencies of these magnetic waves are transformed into audible signals, they give rise to an uncanny song that might recall more the sound effects of a science fiction movie than a natural phenomenon.

In quiet times, when no solar storm is striking the Earth, the song is lower in pitch and less complex, with one single frequency dominating the oscillation. When a solar storm hits, the frequency of the wave is roughly doubled, with the precise frequency of the resulting waves being dependent on the strength of the magnetic field in the storm.

"It's like the storm is changing the tuning of the foreshock," explains Lucile.

And it doesn't stop there because not only does the frequency of the wave change but it also becomes much more complicated than the single frequency present in quiet times. Once the storm hits the foreshock, the wave breaks into a complex network of different, higher frequencies.

Computer simulations of the foreshock, performed using a model called Vlasiator, which is being developed at the University of Helsinki, demonstrate the intricate wave pattern that appears during solar storms.The magnetic waves measured by ESA’s Cluster mission in the magnetic foreshock above Earth – the first region of our planet’s magnetic environment that solar wind particles encounter – during a solar storm. The video contains a ‘sonification’ of the magnetic waves obtained by transforming the frequencies of these magnetic waves into audible signals. During the storm, the magnetic waves in the foreshock roughly double their frequency and become more complicated than during calm space weather conditions, resulting in audible sounds that are around an octave higher and much more variable. Credit: ESA/Cluster; L. Turc et al. (2019); Audio: Martin Archer, Queen Mary University of London, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The changes in the foreshock have the power to affect the way the solar storm is propagated down to the Earth's surface. Although it is still an open question exactly how this process works, it is clear that the energy generated by waves in the foreshock cannot escape back into space, as the waves are pushed towards Earth by the incoming solar storm.

Before they reach our atmosphere, however, the waves encounter another barrier, the bow shock, which is the magnetic region of space that slows down solar wind particles before they collide with Earth's magnetic field. The collision of the magnetic waves modifies the behaviour of the bow shock, possibly changing the way it processes the energy of the incoming solar storm.

Behind the bow shock, the magnetic fields of Earth start to resonate at the frequency of the waves and this contributes to transmit the magnetic disturbance all the way to the ground. It is a fast process, taking around ten minutes from the wave being generated at the foreshock to its energy reaching the ground.

Lucile and colleagues are now working to understand exactly how these complex waves are generated.

"We always expected a change in frequency but not the level of complexity in the wave," she adds.

Solar storms are a part of space weather. While the solar wind is always blowing, explosive releases of energy close to the sun's surface generate turbulence and gusts that eventually give rise to solar storms.

Understanding space weather has become increasingly important to society because of the damaging effects solar storms can have on sensitive electronics and technology on ground and in space. It is now more important than ever that we understand how space weather disturbances such as solar storms propagate through the Solar System and down to Earth, and ESA's upcoming Solar Orbiter mission, scheduled for launch in February 2020, will greatly contribute to these investigations.

This new scientific study based on the long-lived Cluster mission provides another detail in that knowledge but it also has a larger role to play in our understanding of the universe. Magnetic fields are ubiquitous and so the kind of complex interaction seen in Earth's foreshock may take place in a variety of cosmic environments, including exoplanets orbiting close to their parent star, as they would be immersed in intense magnetic fields.

"This is an excellent example of how Cluster continues to extend our knowledge of the sun-Earth connection, even years after the original data was obtained," says Philippe Escoubet, ESA Project Scientist for Cluster.

"The results take us deeper into the details of fundamental magnetic interactions that take place across the universe."

More information: L. Turc et al. First observations of the disruption of the Earth's foreshock wave field during magnetic clouds, Geophysical Research Letters. DOI: 10.1029/2019GL084437

The audio files with the sonification of the Cluster measurements are available on ESA's Soundcloud page: soundcloud.com/esa

Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters