https://phys.org/news/2018-05-graphene-layered-magnetic-materials-ultrathin.html

Fert shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007 for his work in understanding a magnetic effect in multilayer materials that led to new technology for reading data in hard drives, for example, and gave rise to a new field studying how to exploit and control a fundamental property known as "spin" in electrons to drive a new type of low-energy, high-speed computer memory and logic technology known as spintronics.

In this latest work, published online May 28 in the journal Nature Materials, the research team showed how that spin property – analogous to a compass needle that can be tuned to face either north or south – is affected by the interaction of graphene with the magnetic layers.