Energy Focus: Electric fields help oxygen slip through the cracks for ultralow power electronics
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cent issue of Scientific Reports (doi:10.1038/ srep31067) that by using smart materials, the fold angle could be manipulated to expand or contract the honeycomb. “Experimental verification of the predicted switch between negative and positive Poisson’s ratio over relatively small changes in fold angle argues well for practical use of this approach in ingenious aerospace applications,” says Anselm A kirigami honeycomb material in different stages of evolution. Griffin, a professor at Georgia Credit: Robin M. Neville, Fabrizio Scarpa, and Alberto Pirrera. Institute of Technology. Others in the field have commented positively on this work. Daniel Inman the mechanism side of shape-changing from the University of Michigan says, structures allowing many new designs to “Morphing has game-changing possibe considered. As advanced manufacturbilities from automotive to aircraft and ing moves from polymers to metals, the even civil structures. The work is sigimpact of this work is even greater.” nificant as it brings new possibilities to Vineet Venugopal
Energy Focus
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Electric fields help oxygen slip through the cracks for ultralow power electronics
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he recent increase in connectivity of the modern world has left us dependent on the battery life of our personal electronics, forcing us to keep a watchful eye on the icon in the corner of our screen as it ticks toward 0%. Enormous amounts of time and effort have been dedicated to discovering new battery materials and improving existing ones that pack larger energy-storage capacities into smaller spaces. However, making our electronics more energy efficient may be complementary extending the lifetime of our electronics. As reported in Nature Communications (doi:10.1038/ncomms12264), a research team led by Dustin Gilbert and Alexander Grutter from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), have implemented a recently demonstrated “magneto-ionic” approach in a push toward ultralow power electronics. Their approach utilizes electric fields to alter the chemical and magnetic makeup of materials, and opens pathways to nonvolatile
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Illustration of oxygen migration mechanism: (a) as-grown film, (b,c) positive electrical bias, and (d,e) negative electrical bias. AlOx (red), GdOx (green), metallic ferromagnetic Co (light blue), insulating non-FM Co (dark blue), and interstitial oxygen (orange). Credit: Nature Communications.
memory and logic devices that potentially require much less power to operate. Gilbert says, “In classical electronics you’re relying on the charge of an electron; as the electron moves through your material, scattering produces heat. In this [new approach] there’s essentially no movement of the electrons; you’re applying a voltage only and no real current. The voltage drags oxygen from the oxide into the neighboring metallic material, changing its magnetic properties.”
The researchers grew thin-film heterostructures with special consideration given to ensuring clean, well-defined interfaces between the AlOx, GdOx, and Co layers. Uti
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