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

10 25 50
 
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