March 2011

Researchers from the University of Utah developed a new spintronic transistor that can be used to align electron spin for a record period of time in silicon chips at room temperature. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

The researchers used electricity and magnetic fields to inject "spin polarized carriers" - namely, electrons with their spins aligned either all up or all down - into silicon at room temperature. The new technique was to use magnesium oxide as a "tunnel barrier" to get the aligned electron spins to travel from one nickel-iron electrode through the silicon semiconductor to another nickel-iron electrode. Without the magnesium oxide, the spins would get randomized almost immediately, half up and half down.

Researchers from the Quantum Electronics Laboratory at Hokkaido University are studying quantum functional devices, with the aim of fabricating "Beyond CMOS" switching devices. To achieve this, the researchers have proposed "quantum cross devices," which have nanoscale contacts. Quantum cross devices utilize a new structure, where the edges of thin metal films are crossed. In this structure, the contact area depends on the film thickness. For example, metal films 1-20 nm thick can, in principle, form a nanoscale contact with size between 1 x 1 and 20 x 20 square nanometers.

Researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology are studying how precisely the behavior of single electrons can be controlled and measured. The researchers fabricate semiconductor nanostructures, and investigate their behavior on timescales at or below the nanosecond level. They then study the particle and wave properties of electrons, as well as their interaction:

The European Research Council granted €1.3 million to Spain's CIC nanogune's SPINTROS project - as it has been awarded the Starting Grant prize for innovation ideas in electronics. CIC Nanogune is a new nanotech research center in the Basque Country, Spain.

The Spintros (Spin Transport in Organic Semiconductors) project aims to explore news materials and functions in order to design and develop new electronic devices. The project focuses on the design tasks, manufacture and study of electronic devices at a nanometric scale in just one molecule.

There's a new science called Atomtronics - which could make devices more powerful than electronics or spintronics. The idea is to use super-cooling atoms that form Bose-Einstein condensates ('gas clouds') and then use them as we use electronics, diodes and transistors. The atoms in the condensate flow as a current, which can be switched on and off like a normal circuit.

This is still all in theory, but there are some scientists already working towards such goals - to create powerful computing devices or memory devices. This is different from spintronics, which stores information based on the spin of individual electrons, allowing each one to store two bits of data instead of one.