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We are thrilled to share the news of a truly significant scientific contribution by Dr. Srđan Stavrić, Senior Research Associate at the Laboratory for Theoretical Physics and Condensed Matter Physics (Lab. 020). He has published a paper titled "Electrical switching of a p-wave magnet" in the eminent scientific journal Nature. This publication, a result of Dr. Stavrić's long-standing collaboration with a group of researchers from the United States and Italy, represents a scientific breakthrough in spintronics, a field at the intersection of condensed matter physics and materials physics that studies quantum effects crucial for the development of future electronic technology.
The existence of a new class of magnets, known as p-wave magnets, which was theoretically predicted three years earlier, has now been both theoretically described and experimentally demonstrated. In p-wave magnets, magnetic moments form specific helical arrangements, causing characteristic patterns or motifs in the material's electronic structure that resemble atomic p-orbitals.
According to Dr. Stavrić, spintronics will allow us to utilize the electron spin for information storage and transfer just as efficiently as we have been using its charge for decades. The main advantage of spintronic devices lies in enormous energy savings. For the same device functionality, we would need tens of thousands of times less energy compared to conventional electronics!
The study demonstrated that the chirality (i.e., the winding direction of their magnetic moments) of these magnets, and consequently the spin polarization of their electronic bands, can be controllably switched between two distinct states using an electric field. This represents a significant step towards the realization of the first spintronic devices that will utilize p-wave magnets for their operation. Dr. Stavrić explained that the research involved multiple experimental and theoretical stages: from the synthesis of high-quality nickel diiodide (NiI2) samples, the magnetic material central to the work, to the final fabrication of devices used for measurements with various optical methods. It was shown that an electric field can controllably switch the system from one quantum state to another by changing the chirality of the magnetic spirals.
"In conventional computers, we encode information using 0s and 1s. This means you need a physical system with two different states, and you must be able to controllably switch the system from one state to another. P-wave magnets enable precisely that, but in a new and previously unexplored way," adds Dr. Stavrić.
Besides experiments, another important part involved the demanding theoretical description of p-wave magnets, starting from a complex analysis of the system's magnetic symmetries to quantum calculations using density functional theory, which is Dr. Stavrić's specialized area.
"My task was to model the simplest possible system that has the same set of crystal and magnetic symmetries as the experimental sample. When I realized what kind of system we needed, I calculated its electronic structure and saw patterns resembling atomic p-orbitals. That's when I knew that p-wave magnets had become a reality," says Dr. Stavrić.
It is symbolic that the discovery of p-wave magnets comes in 2025, which UNESCO has declared the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, commemorating 100 years since Goudsmit and Uhlenbeck proposed the existence of electron spin to explain their experimental results.
"I hope we won't have to wait another 100 years to start using p-wave magnets in mobile phones," Dr. Stavrić adds jokingly.
Finally, we are immensely proud that the Vinča Institute, through Dr. Stavrić's dedicated efforts, has stood shoulder to shoulder with top world research institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Yale University.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Stavrić on this remarkable achievement and wish him great success in his future scientific endeavors.
You can also read the news about this great discovery on the MIT website:
https://news.mit.edu/2025/physicists-observe-new-form-magnetism-0605