![\"Seeing](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/seeing-spins-dance-at-1.jpg\" "\\"Artistic")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Artistic depiction of a spin wave. Credit: Demie Kepaptsoglou.<\/p>\n
For the first time, spin waves, also known as magnons, have been directly observed at the nanoscale. This breakthrough was made possible by combining a high\u2013energy-resolution electron microscope with a theoretical method developed at Uppsala University. The results open exciting new opportunities for studying and controlling magnetism at the nanoscale.<\/p>\n
“We could suddenly see all the magnons and every step of their dance at the nanoscale<\/a>. Until now, only surface magnons had been glimpsed at this resolution. It was like getting front-row seats to a performance no one had ever seen in full,” says Jos\u00e9 \u00c1ngel Castellanos-Reyes, co-first author of the study and researcher at Uppsala University.<\/p>\n The magnetism of materials such as iron and nickel is a consequence of “tiny magnets” attached to their atoms, so-called atomic spins. In these magnetic materials<\/a>, the spins in different atoms dance together in a synchronized motion called spin waves<\/a> or magnons.<\/p>\n Magnons play a key role in the rapidly growing research field of magnonics, where the spin waves are used to carry information instead of electric charges. Magnonics has the potential to drive the next generation of electronics, offering faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient technology compared to today’s charge-based systems.<\/p>\n Despite their importance, magnons have been nearly impossible to observe at the nanoscale with existing technologies. A big challenge in magnonics is understanding how magnons behave and how their properties may be modified at the nanoscale. For example, until now it has not been possible to assess the effect of impurities, such as a vacancy where an atom is missing in a material, on the performance of magnonic devices.<\/p>\n But now, in a study published<\/a> in Nature, researchers from Uppsala University and international collaborators have taken a big step forward by introducing a new method to visualize and analyze magnons at the nanoscale. This was possible thanks to the combination of experiments performed at SuperSTEM laboratory in the UK and two theoretical and computational methods<\/a> developed at Uppsala University, TACAW and UppASD.<\/p>\n Experimental geometry of momentum-resolved EELS. Credit: Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038\/s41586-025-09318-y<\/p>\n In the experiments, the researchers used a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) with extremely high energy resolution, around 7 meV, available in only a few instruments worldwide. They measured energy losses in the electron beam<\/a> as it passed through the sample, revealing subtle traces of magnons.<\/p>\n One of the methods used in the study is the Time Autocorrelation of Auxiliary Wavefunctions (TACAW), a theory for high\u2013energy-resolution electron microscopy. TACAW was created and developed at Uppsala University by Castellanos-Reyes together with Paul Zeiger and J\u00e1n Rusz, and allowed the researchers to simulate how magnons interact with fast-moving electrons. Their calculations helped to identify the faint magnon<\/a> signals in the experiment.<\/p>\n \n Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers<\/strong> who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. “We predicted to find a magnon signal at an energy of around 100 meV in the nickel oxide nanocrystal, and the experiment confirmed it,” says Rusz, professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University.<\/p>\n The other crucial method is UppASD, an open-source software<\/a> for atomistic spin dynamics, developed and maintained at Uppsala University. It was decisive to simulate the magnons of nickel oxide, the model system used in the experiments.<\/p>\n “UppASD is an established method for simulating magnons that can be detected with other experimental techniques. Thus, we are very pleased to see that it also played a key role in this new type of experiment,” says Associate Professor Anders Bergman and developer of UppASD.<\/p>\n The study shows that it is now possible to see how magnons behave at the nanoscale and could change how we understand magnetic materials.<\/p>\n “This is a milestone in magnonics and microscopy. It opens exciting opportunities for the development of spin-based electronic devices<\/a>,” says Castellanos-Reyes.<\/p>\n More information:<\/strong> \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProvided by \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCitation<\/strong>: \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no![\"Seeing](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/seeing-spins-dance-at.jpg\" "\\"Experimental")
<\/p>\n
\n Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a> and get updates on breakthroughs,
\n innovations, and research that matter\u2014daily or weekly<\/strong>.\n <\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDemie Kepaptsoglou et al, Magnon spectroscopy in the electron microscope, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038\/s41586-025-09318-y<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUppsala University<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSpin waves observed directly at nanoscale for first time (2025, July 24)
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tretrieved 25 July 2025
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2025-07-nanoscale.html\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artistic depiction of a spin wave. Credit: Demie Kepaptsoglou. For the first time, spin waves, also known as…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":91316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[493,494,492,489,159,490,158,491,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-91315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-materials","9":"tag-nanotech","10":"tag-physics","11":"tag-physics-news","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-science-news","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-technology-news","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114913786226285518","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}