Theme 1: Nano Magnetic Circuits

Nanomagnetic Logic (NML) is one of the promising candidate technologies for ultra-low power logic with integrated nonvolatile memory. NML involves the use of closely spaced, single-domain, nanoscale magnetic islands with aligned shape anisotropy that interact via nearest-neighbor interactions. The interaction is "clocked" in that a group of magnets are magnetized along their hard axes by an external magnetic field, and then allowed to relax as the field is removed. The clocking field lowers the energy barrier between the 1 and 0 states, and as a result of nearest-neighbor interactions, the magnets flip into the lowest energy configuration resulting in a logical computation. Increased efforts will be placed on clock circuits and clocking mechanisms, coupling to the electronic domain via BFO and enhancing the metrology capability via PEEM studied.