Tokyo, Jan 2 (IANS): A group of researchers in Japan and China has found a clue to generate electric current without energy consumption at room temperature.

They have identified the requirements for the development of new types of extremely low power consumption electric devices by studying a specific ferromagnetic thin film.

At extremely low temperatures, this specific thin film shows a peculiar phenomenon.

As the film itself is ferromagnetic, an electric current is spontaneously generated without an external magnetic field and electric current flows only around the edge of the film without energy loss.

At extremely low temperatures, an electric current flows around the edge of the film without energy loss, and under no external magnetic field.

This attractive phenomenon is due to the material's ferromagnetic properties.

For the first time, researchers have revealed the mechanism by which this occurs.

“Hopefully, this achievement will lead to the creation of novel materials that operate at room temperature in the future,” said Akio Kimura, professor at Hiroshima University and a member of the research group.

However, it was previously unknown as to why such specific film had such ferromagnetic properties that allowed it to generate electric current.

“That's why we selected the material as the object of our study,” professor Kimura added.

The researchers expect that the finding will provide a way to increase the critical temperature for relevant device applications.

This study was reported in the journal Nature Communications.