Magnetic Metasurfaces for Sustainable Information and Communication Technologies (MetaMagIC)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bath
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
The MetaMagIC project addresses current technological concerns about the energy efficiency and sustainability of magnetic devices in Information and Communication Technology systems. To increase the efficiency of these there is a strong drive to achieve the precise control of magnetic fields on much smaller microscopic length scales in order to concentrate them uniformly in small and targeted regions. There is also a need to move away from expensive rare-earth based magnetic materials whose supply could become uncertain in the near future. MetaMagIC offers a low cost and highly effective way to address both these key challenges in a ground-breaking approach based on spatially structured magnetic materials, so-called magnetic metasurfaces. Combining cutting-edge theory and modelling with state-of-the-art techniques for fabricating and characterising magnetic thin-film devices, we will address several important technological areas. We will greatly increase the sensitivity of magnetic sensors, such as those found in cars and smart meters, by incorporating them in specially designed planar metasurfaces. We will also use this approach to improve the efficiency of small energy harvesting structures that can extract enough energy from their environments to power small electronic devices. We will combine the field expulsion and concentration properties of metasurfaces to achieve much more efficient wireless charging of, for example, mobile phones. Finally we will use the high field saturation of the response of magnetic materials to design entirely new types of devices and protect very sensitive equipment like heart pacemakers from damage by high magnetic fields.
Publications
Fourneau E
(2023)
Microscale Metasurfaces for On-Chip Magnetic Flux Concentration
in Advanced Materials Technologies
Li P
(2022)
High resolution magnetic microscopy based on semi-encapsulated graphene Hall sensors
in Applied Physics Letters
Noble J
(2023)
A simplified model for minor and major loop magnetic hysteresis and its application for inference of temperature in induction heated particle beds
in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
Description | We have investigated the design rules for planar magnetic field concentrators based on permalloy "flower-like" structures. This development has been guided by Transformation Optics Theory. We have demonstrated the geometries that lead to the largest concentration factors and shown that the inclusion of thin film superconductor (YBCO) petals in-between Py petals leads to negligible improvement in efficiency at low temperatures. However, we have demonstrated that the YBCO petals do make the concentrator structures slightly more "invisible" at low temperatures. |
Exploitation Route | The new designs for planar magnetic concentrators could lead to more efficient and precise on-chip sensing and control. |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Energy Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
URL | https://www.chistera.eu/projects/metamagic |
Title | Cryogenic Piezoelectric Scanner with Tunnel Magnetoresistance Sensor |
Description | A cryogenic magnetic scanning system has been built based on a triple-axis piezoelectric positioning stage and a low vibration cryocooler. The scanned tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) sensor is capable of high resolution nanoscale magnetic imaging measurements in magnetic fields up to 10mT and temperatures down to 40K. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The new tool allows the spatially resolved measurement of the magnet state of ferromagnetic microstructures to be measured as a function of magnetic field and temperature. |
Title | Dataset for: "Nanoscale graphene Hall sensors for high-resolution magnetic imaging" |
Description | This dataset contains data from the characterisations of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) graphene Hall sensors with wire widths between 50nm and 1500nm. Characterisations include noise amplitude at various drive currents and back gate voltages, Hall voltage measurements at various magnetic fields and back gate voltages, 2-wire voltage measurements with back gate voltage, and an SEM image used in publications/dissemination. The data files are named according to a convention that indicates to which wire width each file corresponds. Data in figures 7 and 8b of the associated paper are based on all of the complete sets of data for each of the wire widths. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Description | MetaMagic Collaboration |
Organisation | Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) |
Country | Spain |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We have performed magnetic imaging and characterisation of planar on-chip metasurfaces fabricated at CSIC Barcelona. |
Collaborator Contribution | CSIC Barcelona have designed and fabricated several planar on-chip metasurfaces and shipped them to Bath. UAB Barcelona are developing the theory for the chip design. The University of Liege are performing complementary MOKE magnetic imaging and micromagnetic simulations. Brno University are performing complementary Lorentz microscopy imaging. |
Impact | A publication on this work has been submitted to Advanced Functional Materials. |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | MetaMagic Collaboration |
Organisation | Brno University of Technology |
Country | Czech Republic |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We have performed magnetic imaging and characterisation of planar on-chip metasurfaces fabricated at CSIC Barcelona. |
Collaborator Contribution | CSIC Barcelona have designed and fabricated several planar on-chip metasurfaces and shipped them to Bath. UAB Barcelona are developing the theory for the chip design. The University of Liege are performing complementary MOKE magnetic imaging and micromagnetic simulations. Brno University are performing complementary Lorentz microscopy imaging. |
Impact | A publication on this work has been submitted to Advanced Functional Materials. |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | MetaMagic Collaboration |
Organisation | Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona |
Country | Spain |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | We have performed magnetic imaging and characterisation of planar on-chip metasurfaces fabricated at CSIC Barcelona. |
Collaborator Contribution | CSIC Barcelona have designed and fabricated several planar on-chip metasurfaces and shipped them to Bath. UAB Barcelona are developing the theory for the chip design. The University of Liege are performing complementary MOKE magnetic imaging and micromagnetic simulations. Brno University are performing complementary Lorentz microscopy imaging. |
Impact | A publication on this work has been submitted to Advanced Functional Materials. |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | MetaMagic Collaboration |
Organisation | University of Liege |
Country | Belgium |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We have performed magnetic imaging and characterisation of planar on-chip metasurfaces fabricated at CSIC Barcelona. |
Collaborator Contribution | CSIC Barcelona have designed and fabricated several planar on-chip metasurfaces and shipped them to Bath. UAB Barcelona are developing the theory for the chip design. The University of Liege are performing complementary MOKE magnetic imaging and micromagnetic simulations. Brno University are performing complementary Lorentz microscopy imaging. |
Impact | A publication on this work has been submitted to Advanced Functional Materials. |
Start Year | 2022 |