Electronics: Domain walls go electric

The motion of domain walls in nanowires can be controlled with an electric field, reports a study published this week in Nature Communications. This finding opens up the way for controlling the domain wall motion in spintronic devices at a very low power cost.

Controlling the movement of domain walls is important for the development of fast spintronic devices. So far, the emphasis has been achieving this through the application of magnetic fields or electric currents. Sjors Schellekens and co-workers demonstrate an alternative approach based on the application of an electric field. This finding allows the domain walls to be propagated in a controlled manner and with a low power consumption.

Further work is needed in order to determine whether this method could be used in real world devices