Conventional computers keep memory and processing in separate units, so data constantly travel between them. This bottleneck costs time and energy, especially for artificial intelligence. Magneto-ionics offers an alternative: changing a material’s magnetism by moving ions into it, to build memories that keep data without power and can also perform logic operations.
The MagnOxy project (Magneto-ionic devices based on oxygen-ion solid state intercalation) explored this route using oxide thin films. Its main results:
- Watching ions move. New characterisation methods track how oxygen ions move and insert into oxide films with better spatial and time resolution (Small Methods).
- Magnetism on demand. Magnetic transitions in perovskite oxide films can be tuned reversibly and gradually by a voltage that drives oxygen ions in and out (Applied Physics Reviews).
- Brain-inspired devices. Prototype neuromorphic devices use ion-driven magnetic changes to adjust electrical conductivity, for analog, energy-efficient signal processing (Advanced Materials).
MagnOxy was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship carried out by Francesco Chiabrera under the supervision of Albert Tarancón, from January 2024 to January 2026.
More information: CORDIS · IREC news
Funded by the European Union (GA No. 101107093). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
