Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the universities of Arizona and Colorado in the United States bonded lithium niobate (LN) and yttrium iron garnet (YIG) into a layered structure despite their different crystal lattices. In the peer-reviewed paper published October 11 in npj Spintronics, the team placed a 5-micrometre Y-cut LN film on a 2-micrometre YIG film grown on a gadolinium gallium garnet substrate, then removed the carrier substrate to create a large, void-free active area.

The team fabricated surface-acoustic-wave delay devices on the platform and observed acoustic-driven magnetic resonance at 655 MHz. The paper reports maximum magnetic absorption of about 6.66 dB per millimetre and a phase shift near −44 degrees per millimetre; vibration measurements also showed a magnetic-field-dependent modulation. The authors describe this as possible evidence of energy exchange between acoustic and magnetic systems and say the bonding route is wafer-scalable, but the work does not demonstrate volume manufacturing or commercial deployment. The article lists Sandia in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the University of Arizona in Tucson, and the University of Colorado Boulder.