New way to read data in antiferromagnets unlocks their use as computer memory

The problem in the volatile and nonvolatile memory market is that a new type of memory will not reach the economies of scale necessary unless it can completely replace the exiting technology.

HBM is still a niche technology.

Processing in memory? Cool but upmem hasn't updated their hardware in a while, indicating that the demand isn't there.

de_nied• 3 years ago

"The discovery suggests that wireless energy, like that from Wi-Fi and mobile signals, could cause antiferromagnets to produce electricity that might one day be tapped to power portable electronic devices."

I think this is even a more interesting application.

mcpackieh• 3 years ago

Rectennas can do this, it's the basis of passive RFID, but under normal circumstances there's very little power available to harvest.

inhumantsar• 3 years ago

unlocks their use as computer memory

The big asterisk on that being "at 5 Kelvin".

alenrozac• 3 years ago

They do say next research step is room temperature..

hinkley7• 3 years ago

Sure it is. (Memory doesn’t run at room temperature. It runs at half the boiling point of water).

hinkley7• 3 years ago

5 kelvin: the “in mice” of physics.

MichaelZuo• 3 years ago

Now that you mention it, aren't there superconductors that work at only liquid nitrogen temperatures?

gavinray2• 3 years ago

Can any physicist explain the term "quantum metric"?

Googling it appears to give no relevant results. Might it be a typo?

  > "The researchers said that the unique voltage arises from the electronic properties of the manganese bismuth telluride crystals, called the quantum metric."

physicsguy• 3 years ago

Sometimes there are properties in quantum systems that are measurable not because of the state itself, but because of the history of the system, for e.g. the topology that an electron travels through. A good example of this is the quantum Hall effect, where you get discrete jumps in the conductance across 2D systems in which a voltage is applied in a transverse direction. This is caused by Berry Curvature, which is the real part of a geometric tensor that describes the topology of the quantum state. The imaginary part of the same tensor is called the “quantum metric”.

In this specific case, they’re measuring a different voltage due to electrons passing through the data written in the antiferromagnet. They pose theoretically in the paper that it could be because of an effect of the quantum metric

gavinray2• 3 years ago

Thank you!

New way to read data in antiferromagnets unlocks their use as computer memory

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