Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

There is increasing excitement in scientific and technological communities concerning the rich variety of phenomena displayed by micro-structured arrangements of nanomagnets. These arrangements define `circuits' whose operation involves reversal of magnetization of individual nanomagnets in a complex, highly coordinated manner, and are sometimes called `metamaterials'. Useful magnetic patterns emerge that are of particular interest for studies of how complex many body systems behave. These metamaterials can be used to encode and manipulate information associated with nanomagnet magnetization. Most importantly, the metamaterials do not generate ohmic heating as one would expect for the same type of information manipulations using silicone-based circuitry because they do not require electric currents for operation. This results in a great saving of power in comparison to conventional microelectronics and for neuromorphic applications-with efficiencies estimated at 100,000 times higher than what conventional technologies can achieve. The proposed investigations will define and establish theoretical models and computational tools necessary to describe a new type of nanomagnetic metamaterial. The new material will display `smart active' functionality combining neuromorphic and active matter properties. Moreover, these models and tools will offer new approaches to address certain long-standing scientific questions. These questions are considered fundamental challenges in condensed matter physics because they address how frustrated and disordered systems behave over multiple time and length scales. Importantly, the same models and tools will be applied to propose devices that provide smart, power efficient re-configurability for control and sensing and can operate in next generation wireless environments. The required theoretical understanding and computational approaches will be developed by ten HQP trained over the course of this research in addition to five undergraduate project students. This number includes my current five HQP who are working on the first stages of these projects. In the next steps, the HQP will model new designs for three dimensional arrays of nanomagnets and propose a new type of active smart magnetic metamaterial. These projects will train HQP for future research and development in nanomagnetism and magnonics, two areas where Canadian research is an established leader internationally. The training will expand Canadian capabilities by enabling HQP to participate in a rapidly growing international effort to create energy efficient material platforms for information technologies with an emphasis on neuromorphic applications. The need for HQP in this area is made especially urgent due to the exponentially increasing energy cost associated with the proliferation of artificial intelligence.