Researchers at Tohoku University added cobalt to titanium dioxide to create a “chameleon” magnet that can be turned on and off by inducing an electric current.

The flowing current causes cobalt ions in the material to align with the same “spin,” making the material magnetic. When the current stops, the electrons in the material go back to having different spins, making them non-magnetic.

Traditional computing devices process information by moving electrons around, generating a substantial amount of waste heat, drawing power and limiting device life. By using electron spin to represent 1s and 0s instead of electrons moving through logic gates, computers could be more efficient, seamlessly integrating memory and logic in the same chip.

Ref.: Igor Žutić and John Cernĕ, “Chameleon Magnets,” Science 332, 1040 (2011) DOI: 10.1126/science.1205775