Magnetic materials can remember—and even learn. While today’s technology uses spins in magnets to store binary data, unlocking their full learning potential means going beyond conventional ferro- and antiferromagnets, and learning how to operate complex magnets that can settle into many different spin configurations, representing multistate memories.
Complex magnets appear in exotic phases known as spin glasses and spin liquids, which are among the most mysterious states of matter. In these materials, the magnetic moments tend to align in certain ways, but the atomic lattice—the material’s underlying structure—gets in the way. This push and pull creates a complicated energy landscape with many “valleys”, each representing a unique magnetic memory. The problem is, this complexity also brings disorder and fluctuating behaviour, making it hard to control and read-out just one specific memory/valley without disturbing the rest. Current technology struggles with this making these systems “interesting” but “useless”.
PhoeniX aims to establish the scientific foundation for deterministic control of complex magnets by optically manipulating their atomic lattice—the source of their complexity. Using ultrafast laser pulses to precisely vibrate and distort the lattice—temporarily breaking its symmetries - we seek to learn how to reshape the magnetic energy landscape—deepening some “valleys” while flattening others—so the system can be steered quickly and accurately into specific magnetic states. This approach offers speed and precision beyond conventional, thermodynamic methods that struggle with the chaotic nature of these materials, promising a way to tame this chaos and unlock new brain-inspired computing technologies that are fast, adaptable, and energy-efficient.
