Terahertz Spin Wave Logic

ongoing

Finding a fundamentally new approach for data processing in the fastest and most energy efficient way is a frontier problem for applied physics and technology. The amount of data generated every second is so enormous that the heat produced by modern data centres has already become a serious limitation to further increase their performance. This heating is a result of the Ohmic dissipation of energy unavoidable in conventional electronics. At present, the data industry lacks a solution for this problem, which in future may contribute greatly to the global warming and energy crisis. An emerging alternative approach is to employ spin waves (magnons) to realize waveform-based computation, which is free from electronic Joule heating. However, the present realization of this approach, called magnonics, uses electric currents to generate and modulate magnons. This project aims to replace the electrons with light using antiferromagnetic materials, in which spins precess on a picosecond timescale and strongly couple to electro-magnetic waves. This interdisciplinary approach at the interface between magnetism and photonics not only circumvents Ohmic losses, but simultaneously pushes the operation of magnonics to THz clock-rates. Firstly, we will develop theoretical framework and a numerical solver to describe antiferromagnetic spin dynamics, strongly coupled to electro-magnetic radiation at THz frequencies. Secondly, we will develop prototypical antiferromagnetic logic elements that may have an enormous impact upon future magnon-based information processing technology. These two tasks will be pursued in parallel as the development of the solver will be validated through comparison of the numerical results with the experimental data, while the design of the magnonic logic will be informed by the numerical simulations.