How Strange New Magnets Are Building a Faster, Greener Digital Future
Imagine a silent, invisible force that powers every click, stream, and digital interaction in our modern world. This force is magnetism, and it is at the heart of the devices that shape our lives.
Yet, this convenience comes at a cost: the skyrocketing energy consumption of our data-hungry society. Within a few decades, the surging volume of digital data is projected to constitute nearly 30% of global energy consumption 1 3 .
This looming crisis has sparked an urgent scientific quest for a solution. The answer, emerging from laboratories worldwide, lies not in reinventing the wheel, but in reimagining one of humanity's oldest known forces.
Projected growth in energy consumption by digital technologies based on current trends 1 .
Spins aligned in same direction
Spins cancel each other out
These new materials form the foundation for spintronics (spin electronics), a transformative approach to computing. Instead of relying solely on an electron's charge, as traditional electronics do, spintronics also harnesses its spin. This allows for data to be stored and processed more efficiently, potentially packing orders of magnitude more data onto a device while using far less power 3 .
In 2025, a team at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden unveiled a breakthrough that could shift the paradigm: an atomically thin material that enables two opposing magnetic forces—ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism—to coexist within a single, two-dimensional crystal structure 1 .
The material's built-in tilted magnetic alignment allows electrons to switch direction rapidly without needing an external magnetic field, enabling a dramatic reduction in power consumption by a factor of 10 1 .
| Property | Conventional Magnetic Materials | Chalmers' 2D Material | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magnetic Structure | Multilayer stacks of different materials | Single material with coexisting orders | Simplifies manufacturing, improves reliability |
| Switching Mechanism | Requires external magnetic field | Internal field from tilted magnetic alignment | Reduces energy consumption |
| Energy Consumption | Baseline | 10x lower | Enables ultra-efficient data centers and AI |
| Data Reliability | Can be compromised by interface issues | High, due to seamless single structure | More robust and durable memory chips |
| Tool/Reagent | Function/Description | Example Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| 2D Van der Waals Materials (e.g., Chromium Sulfur Bromide) | Atomically thin, stable magnetic semiconductors that replace silicon in transistors | Building block for MIT's magnetic transistor, allowing efficient control of electron flow 6 |
| Layered Magnetic Alloys (e.g., Co-Fe-Ge-Te) | Single-crystal structures where ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism naturally coexist | Core material in Chalmers' breakthrough ultra-low-energy memory device 1 |
| Magnetic Beads (e.g., Protein A/G-coupled, Streptavidin-coated) | Tiny magnetic particles that provide a scaffold for binding biological molecules | Used in diagnostic assays (MPCLIA) to detect proteins or viruses like SARS-CoV-2 with high sensitivity 5 |
| Parameter | Traditional Silicon | MIT's Magnetic |
|---|---|---|
| Switching Amplitude | N/A | 10x change in current |
| Control Method | Electric field only | Electric current |
| Built-in Memory | No | Yes |
| Energy Efficiency | Limited by physics | Potential for massive savings 6 |
"You're just moving spins around, rather than moving charges... you're not subject to any dissipation effects that generate heat, which is essentially the reason computers heat up."
References will be listed here in the final publication.