April 2011

The German research foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, or DFG established new Research Units. One of the units (Diamond Materials and Quantum Application) will focus on the use of quantum diamonds in the areas of quantum photonics and spintronics. The Research Unit is bringing together experts on material growth, structure and defect creation as well as quantum optics and spintronics.

Researchers from Japan discovered that dilute ferromagnetic oxide materials remain in a ferromagnetic state at room temperature. The team used cobalt-doped titanium dioxide (Co:TiO2) as their study material. This means hat magnetism and conductivity are correlated in thin films of Co:TiO2. Such materials may plan an important role in spintronic devices (MRAM or spin transistors).

Researchers from the University of Maryland (UMD) discovered that missing atoms in Graphene (called vacancies) act as tiny magnets. If you arrange the atoms in a certain way, you could get ferromagnetism - which can be useful in spintronics devices.

Researchers from Ohio State University created a hybrid chip that combines a regular semiconductor with an organic (plastic) spintronic memory device. The plastic spintronics memory device was developed last year in the University, and now it has been incorporated into a circuit based on gallium arsenide.

Spintronic logic could (theoretically) require much less power and generate less hit than current electronics, and a hybrid design could accelerate the commercialization of such devices.

Professor Ron Naaman from the Weizmann Institute in Israel and scientists in Germany discovered that biological molecules in DNA can detect spin states in atoms. The researchers fabricated self-assembling, single layers of DNA attached to a gold substrate. The DNA was exposed to electrons - and the DNA molecules reacted strongly with electrons at one spin, and hardly at all with electrons with a different spin.

Naaman says that it turns out that DNA is a great 'spin filter' - and this could have applications in both biomedical research and spintronics.