X-ray magnetic circular dichroism

Carbon-based materials are extremely lightweight and have thermal, mechanical and electrical properties that are of great interest for use in functional devices. Carbon materials can be manufactured in virtually any shape and even with dimensions on the micro- and nanoscales. Recent research is now aimed at exploiting the spin and magnetism of carbon-based materials for data storage devices – a field called spintronics.

Giant magnetic resistance  (GMR) is a quantum mechanical phenomenon observed in thin structures made of alternating metal layers having differing ferromagnetic properties. When the adjacent ferromagnetic layers of these multilayer materials are magnetized in parallel, there is little electrical resistance, but when magnetization is antiparallel, there is higher resistance. This property allows these materials to be used as magnetic sensors, and thin-film magnetic multilayers have been a popular topic of research. A team of researchers has tested the atomic properties of a variety of nickel and gadolinium (Ni/Gd/Ni) thin-film multilayers.