This visualization shows an experiment where an electronic signal is transmitted through a piece of insulating material. Normally this is not possible, but it can be done in a special class of insulators (magnetic insulators). In this material, so-called “spin-waves” are used to transmit the signal.
Electrons are everywhere, but in some materials they can move freely (metals and other conducting materials), while in others they can’t (insulators). However, electrons also have a property called spin, that makes them sensitive to magnetic fields.
Spin can in principle point in every direction. In the magnetic insulator that we study, all electron spins point in the same direction. However, by having a “freely moving” electron in a metal “bounce” off the surface of the magnetic insulator, a wave of rotating spins is sent into the material. When the wave hits another metal surface, it will set the freely movable electrons there in motion, which generates an electric signal thus recovering (a fraction of) the original input signal.