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Beyond 0 and 1: Ferrotoroidic material can store four magnetic states

Phys · · 1171 words · By Institut Laue-Langevin

Researchers have identified a magnetoelectric crystal capable of stabilizing four distinct magnetic states, which could potentially be used for quaternary data storage. The study, published in Nature Communications, utilized neutron scattering experiments to demonstrate that these states can be controlled and remain stable without continuous power.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ferrotoroidic-material-magnetic-states.html

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Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

14 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

check_circle Corroborated 6
schedule Pending 4
verified Verified By Reference 3
info Single Source 1
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“Today's computers store information using only two values: 0 and 1.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and multiple web sources confirm that binary (0 and 1) is the primary system used by computers to store and process information.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — A binary number is a number expressed in the base-2 numeral system or binary numeral system, a method for representing numbers that uses only two symbols for the natural numbers: typically 0 (zero) an…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_number
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web search NEUTRAL — We only use binary(1,0) because we currently do not have the technology to create "switches" that can reliably hold more than two possible states. (Quantum computers aren't exactly on sale at the mome…
https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/27656/why-do-computer…
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web search NEUTRAL — Binary is still the primary language for computers and is used with electronics and computer hardware for the following reasons. It is a simple and elegant design. Binary's 0 and 1 method quickly dete…
https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/b/binary.htm
verified
“Moore's law (the observation that the number of transistors, the small electronic switches that process and store information, on a microchip roughly doubles every two years).”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and other sources explicitly define Moore's Law as the observation that the number of transistors on a microchip roughly doubles every two years.
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web search NEUTRAL — Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years, with minimal increase in cost.[1] Despite the name, Moore's law describes an …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law
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web search NEUTRAL — We’ve all heard of Moore’s Law — the idea that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles roughly every two years. Now, a new kind of “Scaling Law” has emerged for AI agents. According to recent…
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/moores-law-ai-agents-capacity…
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web search NEUTRAL — Moore’s Law Moore’s Law is the observation that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles about every two years, leading to exponential growth in computing power. It’s not actually a law …
https://vtiya.medium.com/moores-law-a55f26f8937e
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“researchers have found a material in which these atomic magnets can form four different magnetic states.”
CORROBORATED
The claim is corroborated by the ILL (Institut Laue-Langevin) news source which mentions detecting four magnetic states in LiNi0.8Fe0.2PO4, and general research into materials with multiple magnetic behaviors.
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web search NEUTRAL — Researchers have been chasing this concept since magnetism was first applied to memory technology." "A material with multiple magnetic behaviors eliminates interface issues in multilayer stacks and is…
https://www.hackster.io/news/a-material-capable-of-capturing…
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web search NEUTRAL — In a Nature Materials study, researchers investigated the photocurrent response of a bilayer atomically thin antiferromagnet. In this material, spins are aligned within each atomic layer, while the sp…
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-bilayer-antiferromagnet-reveal…
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web search NEUTRAL — Researchers at Cal Poly have discovered that changing magnetic fields over time can create bizarre quantum states that do not naturally exist in ordinary materials.
https://quantumnews.in/article/quantum-computing/this-magnet…
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“They showed that these states can be controlled using electric and magnetic fields and remain stable once created.”
CORROBORATED
The ILL news source specifically states that the four magnetic states were 'created by applying electric and magnetic fields', confirming the control mechanism.
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web search NEUTRAL — Mathematically, the electromagnetic field is a pair of vector fields consisting of one vector for the electric field and one for the magnetic field at each point in space. The vectors may change over …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_field
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web search NEUTRAL — Gauss’s theorem for the magnetic field. Consider a uniform magnetic field with magnetic induction . Select the area S, which permeate the field lines vector angularly α. The flow of the magnetic induc…
https://www.bog5.in.ua/lection/magnetism_lect/lect4_magn_eng…
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web search NEUTRAL — Hint: The ratio of the magnitudes of electric and magnetic fields equals the speed of light in free space.Study material.
https://www.vedantu.com/question-answer/the-relation-between…
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“Using neutron experiments at the Institut Laue-Langevin, the scientists were able to observe each of the four magnetic states”
CORROBORATED
The ILL news source explicitly confirms that scientists used neutron experiments at the Institut Laue-Langevin to observe the four magnetic states in LiNi0.8Fe0.2PO4.
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web search NEUTRAL — The Institut Laue–Langevin (ILL) is an internationally-financed scientific facility, situated on the Polygone Scientifique in Grenoble, France. It is one of the world centres for research using neutro…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_Laue–Langevin
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web search NEUTRAL — Using neutron experiments at the Institut Laue-Langevin, the scientists were able to observe each of the four magnetic states that were created by applying electric and magnetic fields.Detecting four …
https://www.ill.eu/en/about-the-ill/news-and-events/news/bey…
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web search NEUTRAL — ILL - Institut Laue Langevin.A neutron diffraction experiment down to the unprecedented low temperatures of 160 mK simultaneously at a pressure of 20 GPa (nearly 200 000 times the atmospheric pressure…
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/powerful-tool-explore-new-mag…
verified
“spintronics, an emerging field that exploits the magnetic properties of electrons in addition to their electric charge to encode information.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and academic reviews define spintronics as the field exploiting the intrinsic spin of the electron, in addition to its charge, to encode information.
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web search NEUTRAL — Spintronics fundamentally differs from traditional electronics in that, in addition to charge state, electron spins are used as a further degree of freedom, with implications in the efficiency of data…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spintronics
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web search NEUTRAL — Spintronics is a new game where players (ages 8 to adult) build mechanical circuits to solve puzzles. Feel the pull of voltage and see the flow of current. Electronics is abstract, but Spintronics mak…
https://upperstory.com/en/spintronics
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web search NEUTRAL — Sep 1, 2020 · Spintronics is one of the emerging fields for the next-generation nanoelectronic devices to reduce their power consumption and to increase their memory and processing capabilities.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030488532…
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“materials known as magnetoelectrics have a remarkable property: Their magnetic states can be controlled using electric fields.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm that magnetoelectric materials link electric and magnetic properties, allowing electric fields to control magnetic states.
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web search NEUTRAL — This connection lets researchers control magnetism using electric fields, which could pave the way for super-energy-efficient memory and computing devices. One such magnetoelectric material is the oli…
https://phys.org/news/2025-06-magnetoelectric-deflection-mag…
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web search NEUTRAL — Magnetoelectric materials are substances where electric and magnetic properties are intrinsically linked. In essence, applying an electric field to such a material alters its magnetic state-and conver…
https://pixelburn.tech/en/magnetoelectric-materials-future-u…
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web search NEUTRAL — By studying magnetoelectric and toroidic materials with advanced neutron techniques, scientists can explore how magnetic states emerge and how they can be controlled at the atomic scale. The work also…
https://www.ill.eu/en/about-the-ill/news-and-events/news/bey…
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“Some magnetoelectric materials also display a less familiar type of order, known as toroidic order. In these materials, the atomic magnets form a vortex-like pattern, creating what is called a toroidic moment.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple scientific sources and papers describe toroidic order as a vortex-like arrangement of magnetic moments creating a toroidic moment.
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web search NEUTRAL — Magnetic toroidal dipole order is an emergent class of ferroic order characterized by a vortex-like arrangement of magnetic moments.
https://www.emergentmind.com/topics/magnetic-toroidal-dipole…
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web search NEUTRAL — ordering of magnetic-vortex like structures characterized.[Show full abstract] toroidic moments in the form of magnetic vortex-like structures, examples being LiCo(PO_4)_3 and Ba_2CoGe_2O_7. In the pr…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275248398_Recent_Pr…
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web search NEUTRAL — Ferrotoroidal order can be understood in terms of an ordering of magnetic-vortex like struc-tures characterized by a toroidal (dipolar) moment.We will introduce here the toroidic moment and toroidizat…
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1504.04958
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“researchers investigated a magnetoelectric crystal made of lithium, nickel, iron and phosphate (LiNi0.8Fe0.2PO4).”
CORROBORATED
Although the specific 'evidence' section for claim 8 was empty, the evidence for claim 4 explicitly mentions 'Detecting four magnetic states with neutrons on LiNi0.8Fe0.2PO4', confirming the material studied.
info
“In this material, the tiny atomic magnets organize themselves in a particular pattern where neighboring magnets point in opposite directions, a type of magnetic order known as antiferromagnetism.”
SINGLE SOURCE
While the material LiNi0.8Fe0.2PO4 is confirmed to be studied by the ILL, the specific description of its antiferromagnetic pattern in this context is not independently corroborated by the provided search results beyond the implication of the study's nature.
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“At very low temperatures, the magnetic moments in this crystal can arrange themselves in four distinct patterns, each representing a different magnetic state of the material.”
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“Using a technique called spherical neutron polarimetry, scientists measure how this interaction changes the direction of the neutrons' magnetic moments.”
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“the material studied here operates at very low temperatures (below –200 °C)”
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“Navid Qureshi et al, Toroidicity as a route towards non-volatile quaternary memory in antiferromagnets, Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-70767-8”
PENDING
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.