Silicon nano-ribbons could lead to better data-storage systems

This was a key finding of a team of scientists led by Paul Snijders of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

According to a statement, the researchers used scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy to validate first-principle calculations that for years had predicted this outcome.

The discovery, detailed in New Journal of Physics, is said to validate this theory and could move scientists closer towards cost-effectively creating magnetism in non-magnetic materials.

‘While scientists have spent a lot of time studying silicon because it is the workhorse for current information technologies, for the first time we were able to clearly establish that the edges of nano-ribbons feature magnetic silicon atoms,’ said Snijders, a member of ORNL’s Materials Science and Technology Division.

While bulk silicon is non-magnetic, the edges of nano-ribbons of this material are magnetic. Snijders and colleagues at ORNL, Argonne National Laboratory, Wisconsin University and Naval Research Laboratory showed that the electron spins are ordered anti-ferromagnetically.