The second half of the 20th century was the age of electronics, electronic devices became miniaturized and even more complex, creating problems for their energy consumption and waste heat. Spintronics promises to store or transport information based on spins alone, which would work faster with much less energy. Unfortunately it is still a challenge to control spin in a material by external fields reliably and at scale.
The transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) series are the most intensely studied quasi two-dimensional materials beyond graphene, with charge density waves, superconductivity and non-trivial topological all commonplace across the material family. Hafnium diselenide (HfSe2) belongs to this class of materials. Now scientists at BESSY II have unveiled a new property of its electronic structure that could lead to a more convenient route to generate and control spin currents ...