Scientists have uncovered how tiny magnetic waves can produce electric signals inside materials, potentially transforming computing efficiency.
The discovery could lead to ultrafast, low-power chips that merge magnetic and electric systems seamlessly.
Linking Magnetic Waves and Electric Signals
A new theoretical study from engineers at the University of Delaware demonstrates that magnons, magnetic spin waves that move through materials, can generate detectable electric signals. The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The work was carried out through the university’s Center for Hybrid, Active and Responsive Materials (CHARM), a National Science Foundation-funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center.
How Magnetism Carries Information
Magnetism arises from electrons, tiny particles that orbit an atom’s nucleus and possess a property known as spin, which points either up or down. In ferromagnetic materials like iron, these spins align in the same direction to produce a magnetic field.
“Imagine there’s a spring connecting all these spins. If I deflect one spin, it’s like pulling on the spring. The next spin deflects, then the next one, then the next,” said senior author Matthew Doty, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UD’s College of Engineering. “You can think of it like a slinky: stretch it and give it a twitch, and a wave propagates down the coil. A magnon is just like that: a wave.”
In current computer chips, information is carried by moving electrons, which encounter resistance and release heat as they travel. Magnons, by contrast, convey data through changes in spin orientation rather than the motion of electric charges. This allows them to transport information with far less energy loss.
The research centered on antiferromagnetic materials, where electron spins alternate up and down. These materials are particularly attractive for computing because magnons within them can travel at terahertz frequencies—around a thousand times faster than in standard ferromagnets. However, since their opposing spins cancel each other out, detecting and controlling these magnons has long been a challenge.
Revealing a New Electrical Connection
To investigate further, CHARM postdoctoral researcher D. Quang To and colleagues used advanced computer simulations to study how magnons behave in antiferromagnetic materials. Unexpectedly, they found that moving magnons can produce electric signals.
“The results predict that we can detect magnons by measuring the electric polarization they create,” said Doty. “Even more exciting is the possibility that we could use external electric fields, including those of light, to control the motion of magnons. Future devices that replace conventional wires with magnon channels could send information much faster and with much less wasted energy.”
The team examined what happens when one side of a material is heated more than the other, driving magnons from the hot region to the cooler one. They also explored how the orbital angular momentum of magnons—the circular motion of the waves—affects their overall behavior.
“We developed a mathematical framework to understand how orbital angular momentum contributes to magnon transport,” said To, the paper’s first author. “We discovered that when the magnon orbital angular moment interacts with the atoms in the material, it produces an electric polarization.”
In essence, moving magnons within antiferromagnetic materials can generate a measurable voltage.
“Our framework provides a powerful tool that will allow the research community to predict and manipulate the behavior of magnons,” said To.
Looking Ahead: Experiments and Future Applications
The Delaware team is now conducting experiments to test their theoretical predictions. They also plan to investigate how magnons interact with light to determine whether light’s orbital angular momentum can be used to guide or detect magnon movement, a step that could bring energy-efficient, ultrafast computing closer to reality.
Reference: “Magnon-induced electric polarization and magnon Nernst effects” by D. Quang To, Federico Garcia-Gaitan, Yafei Ren, Joshua M. O. Zide, M. Benjamin Jungfleisch, John Q. Xiao, Branislav K. Nikolić, Garnett W. Bryant and Matthew F. Doty, 23 October 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2507255122
This study contributes to CHARM’s broader interdisciplinary mission to design and understand hybrid quantum materials that operate at terahertz frequencies, a key range for next-generation technologies.
The research team included graduate student Federico Garcia-Gaitan; assistant professor Yafei Ren; associate professor M. Benjamin Jungfleisch; UNIDEL Professor John Q. Xiao; and professor Branislav K. Nikolić from the Department of Physics and Astronomy in UD’s College of Arts and Sciences. Additional collaborators were UD engineering professor Joshua Zide and Garnett W. Bryant of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland, College Park.
This work received primary funding from the National Science Foundation through the UD Materials Research Science and Engineering Center under award number DMR-2011824.
Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Follow us on Google, Discover, and News.