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12-04 :: April/May 2012
nanotimes News in Brief
51
Dirk Meyners,
Eckhard Quandt and Enno Lage (f.l.t.r.) at
Kiel Nanolaboratory. © Stefanie Maack / Kiel University
magnetic field to be measured and, as a result of this, at the same time produce electrical voltage which is used as the measuring signal. Enno Lage who has been working on the study since 2010 explains its background: “With the conventional magnetoelectric layer systems it is only possible to perform such high- ly sensitive measurements if the sensor is subjected to a bias magnetic field.
“What makes our composites so extraordinary are antiferromagnetic supporting layers made of man- ganese iridium, which act like magnetic fields inside the material,” he adds. “This means that the bias field for the measurement is produced directly in the sensor and no longer needs to be provided exter- nally.” A complete sensor is usually a few millime-
tres in size and contains a multi-layer of this new material, which is approximately a thousandth of a millimetre thick. The new composite materials have been produced in the recently established Kiel Nano Laboratory’s cleanroom. “These types of sensor systems can only be produced successfully in this particle-free environment“, says Dr. Dirk Meyners, who is scientifically supervising Lage during the doc- toral degree programme.
Enno Lage, Christine Kirchhof, Viktor Hrkac, Lorenz Kien- le, Robert Jahns, Reinhard Knöchel, Eckhard Quandt, Dirk Meyners: Exchange biasing of magnetoelectric composites, In: Nature Materials AOP, April 22, 2012, DOI:10.1038/ nmat3306: