Particle.news
Download on the App Store
3 ARTICLES
·
2h ago

Rice Team Shows Wrinkled 2D Materials Host Persistent Spin Helix With ~1 nm Precession

Curvature-driven flexoelectric fields in molybdenum ditelluride folds stabilize electron spin, pointing to more compact, lower-power spintronic designs.

Image
Rice University researchers Manoj Mattur (left) and Professor Boris Yakobson (right) review data showing how wrinkles in 2D materials influence electron spin. Their work demonstrates how simple bends in atom-thin sheets could lead to faster, more efficient spintronic devices.
Image

Overview

  • Rice University researchers report that bending atomically thin layers induces a persistent spin helix state that preserves spin even during scattering.
  • The study identifies flexoelectric polarization from uneven strain as the internal field that splits spins and organizes them into the PSH texture.
  • In hairpin folds of molybdenum ditelluride, the team measures an approximately 1 nanometer spin-precession length, the shortest reported so far.
  • The authors present controlled bending — a simple mechanical pinch in 2D materials — as a practical route to engineer device-relevant spin fields.
  • The peer-reviewed findings appear in Matter and were supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Army Research Office, NSF, DOE and DoD.