Researchers develop new method of powering tiny devices

FINDINGS: - Electromagnetic devices, from power drills to smart-phones, require an electric current to create the magnetic fields that allow them to function. But with smaller devices, efficiently delivering a current to create magnetic fields becomes more difficult. In a discovery that could lead to big changes in storing digital information and powering motors in small hand-held devices, researchers at UCLA have developed a method for switching tiny magnetic fields on and off with an electric field — a sharp departure from the traditional approach of running a current through a wire. The researchers, affiliated with the university's National Science Foundation-funded TANMS (Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems), developed a composite that can control magneto-electric activity at a scale of about 10 nanometers, some 1,000 times smaller than a red blood cell. Previously, the instability of magnetic particles at this scale made it impossible to control their movement, much less the energy reaching them. The team used a composite of nickel nanocrystals coupled with a single crystal of piezoelectric material — which can generate power when a small amount of force is applied to it — to control the north-south orientation of the particles as well as their tendency to spin around, which are essential aspects of activating or deactivating a magnetic field. IMPACT: - The findings could potentially change the way electromagnetic devices are designed in the future.