This review focuses on the synthesis, protection, functionalization, and application of magnetic nanoparticles, as well as the magnetic properties of nanostructured systems. Substantial progress in the size and shape control of magnetic nanoparticles has been made by developing methods such as co-precipitation, thermal decomposition and/or reduction, micelle synthesis, and hydrothermal synthesis. A major challenge still is protection against corrosion, and therefore suitable protection strategies will be emphasized, for example, surfactant/polymer coating, silica coating and carbon coating of magnetic nanoparticles or embedding them in a matrix/support. Properly protected magnetic nanoparticles can be used as building blocks for the fabrication of various functional systems, and their application in catalysis and biotechnology will be briefly reviewed. Finally, some future trends and perspectives in these research areas will be outlined.

Magnetic nanoparticles: Synthesis, protection, functionalization, and application

Recent developments in the controlled movement of domain walls in magnetic nanowires by short pulses of spin-polarized current give promise of a nonvolatile memory device with the high performance and reliability of conventional solid-state memory but at the low cost of conventional magnetic disk drive storage. The racetrack memory described in this review comprises an array of magnetic nanowires arranged horizontally or vertically on a silicon chip. Individual spintronic reading and writing nanodevices are used to modify or read a train of ∼10 to 100 domain walls, which store a series of data bits in each nanowire. This racetrack memory is an example of the move toward innately three-dimensional microelectronic devices.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/320/5873/190.full.pdf

Magnetic Domain-Wall Racetrack Memory

A revolution in electronics is in view, with the contemporary evolution of the two novel disciplines of spintronics and molecular electronics. A fundamental link between these two fields can be established using molecular magnetic materials and, in particular, single-molecule magnets. Here, we review the first progress in the resulting field, molecular spintronics, which will enable the manipulation of spin and charges in electronic devices containing one or more molecules. We discuss the advantages over more conventional materials, and the potential applications in information storage and processing. We also outline current challenges in the field, and propose convenient schemes to overcome them.

Molecular spintronics using single-molecule magnets

In this chapter, we will restrict our attention to the ferrites and a few other closely related materials. The great interest in ferrites stems from their unique combination of a spontaneous magnetization and a high electrical resistivity. The observed magnetization results from the difference in the magnetizations of two non-equivalent sub-lattices of the magnetic ions in the crystal structure. Materials of this type should strictly be designated as “ferrimagnetic” and in some respects are more closely related to anti-ferromagnetic substances than they are to ferromagnetics in which the magnetization results from the parallel alignment of all the magnetic moments present. We shall not adhere to this special nomenclature except to emphasize effects, which are due to the existence of the sub-lattices.

Ferromagnetic materials

Shor and Grover demonstrated that a quantum computer can outperform any classical computer in factoring numbers1 and in searching a database2 by exploiting the parallelism of quantum mechanics. Whereas Shor's algorithm requires both superposition and entanglement of a many-particle system3, the superposition of single-particle quantum states is sufficient for Grover's algorithm4. Recently, the latter has been successfully implemented5 using Rydberg atoms. Here we propose an implementation of Grover's algorithm that uses molecular magnets6,7,8,9,10, which are solid-state systems with a large spin; their spin eigenstates make them natural candidates for single-particle systems. We show theoretically that molecular magnets can be used to build dense and efficient memory devices based on the Grover algorithm. In particular, one single crystal can serve as a storage unit of a dynamic random access memory device. Fast electron spin resonance pulses can be used to decode and read out stored numbers of up to 105, with access times as short as 10-10 seconds. We show that our proposal should be feasible using the molecular magnets Fe8 and Mn12.

Quantum computing in molecular magnets

THE precise manner in which quantum-mechanical behaviour at the microscopic level underlies classical behaviour at the macroscopic level remains unclear, despite seventy years of theoretical investigation. Experimentally, the crossover between these regimes can be explored by looking for signatures of quantum-mechanical behaviour—such as tunneling—in macroscopic systems1. Magnetic systems (such as small grains, spin glasses and thin films) are often investigated in this way2–12 because transitions between different magnetic states can be closely monitored. But transitions between states can be induced by thermal fluctuations, as well as by tunnelling, and definitive identification of macroscopic tunnelling events in these complex systems is therefore difficult13. Here we report the results of low-temperature experiments on a single crystal composed of super-paramagnetic manganese clusters (Mn12-ac), which clearly demonstrate the existence of quantum-mechanical tunnelling of the bulk magnetization. In an applied magnetic field, the magnetization shows hysteresis loops with a distinct 'staircase' structure: the steps occur at values of the applied field where the energies of different collective spin states of the manganese clusters coincide. At these special values of the field, relaxation from one spin state to another is enhanced above the thermally activated rate by the action of resonant quantum-mechanical tunnelling. These observations corroborate the results of similar experiments performed recently on a system of oriented crystallites made from a powdered sample4.

Macroscopic quantum tunnelling of magnetization in a single crystal of nanomagnets

Spin-polarized currents provide a powerful means of manipulating the magnetization of nanodevices, and give rise to spin transfer torques that can drive magnetic domain walls along nanowires. In ultrathin magnetic wires, domain walls are found to move in the opposite direction to that expected from bulk spin transfer torques, and also at much higher speeds. Here we show that this is due to two intertwined phenomena, both derived from spin–orbit interactions. By measuring the influence of magnetic fields on current-driven domain-wall motion in perpendicularly magnetized Co/Ni/Co trilayers, we find an internal effective magnetic field acting on each domain wall, the direction of which alternates between successive domain walls. This chiral effective field arises from a Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction at the Co/Pt interfaces and, in concert with spin Hall currents, drives the domain walls in lock-step along the nanowire. Elucidating the mechanism for the manipulation of domain walls in ultrathin magnetic films will enable the development of new families of spintronic devices. The influence of magnetic fields on the current-driven motion of domain walls in nanowires with perpendicular anisotropy shows that two spin–orbit-derived mechanisms are responsible for their motion.

Chiral spin torque at magnetic domain walls

The controlled motion of a series of domain walls along magnetic nanowires using spin-polarized current pulses is the essential ingredient of the proposed magnetic racetrack memory, a new class of potential non-volatile storage-class memories. Using permalloy nanowires, we achieved the successive creation, motion, and detection of domain walls by using sequences of properly timed, nanosecond-long, spin-polarized current pulses. The cycle time for the writing and shifting of the domain walls was a few tens of nanoseconds. Our results illustrate the basic concept of a magnetic shift register that relies on the phenomenon of spin-momentum transfer to move series of closely spaced domain walls.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/320/5873/209.full.pdf

Current-controlled magnetic domain-wall nanowire shift register.

Summary 1.The migration of peritoneal exudate cells from guinea pigs with delayed hypersensitivity to tuberculin purified protein derivative, ovalbumin and diphtheria toxoid is markedly inhibited by the respective antigen, and such inhibition is specific. 2.Cells from guinea pigs producing precipitating antibody are not inhibited by antigen. 3.Sera from experimental animals exhibiting delayed hypersensitivity or sera containing precipitating antibody did not sensitize normal cells to antigen. 4.The inhibition still occurs when heat-in-activated sera are used. 5.The findings are consistent with the view of the primary importance of cells in manifestations of delayed hypersensitivity reactions, and the in vitro system gives promise of further elucidation of the mechanism involved.

Luc Thomas

Papers

Magnetic Domain-Wall Racetrack Memory

Macroscopic quantum tunnelling of magnetization in a single crystal of nanomagnets

Chiral spin torque at magnetic domain walls

Current-controlled magnetic domain-wall nanowire shift register.

Delayed hypersensitivity in vitro. i. the specificity of inhibition of cell migration by antigens.