April 2013

An international team of researchers have been looking at the the problems created by internal fields called spin-orbit fields (which create spin-decoherence, when the electronic spins behaves in a way which cannot be completely controlled or predicted).

The researchers studied quantum wells, where the spins can be excited in a collective, coherent way by using lasers and light scattering. They found out that these collective spin excitations possess a macroscopic spin of quantum nature - which means that the electrons and their spin act as a single entity and thus they are less susceptible to spin orbit fields.

Researchers from UCLA demonstrated a Spintronics device that harvests energy from excess heat. The heat created by the computer naturally creates a spin wave, and this wave can be used to move a domain wall (which separates opposing magnetic materials). Basically this domain wall is a turbine that can convert the spin wave in the heat into energy.

Using heat energy to move magnetic domain walls is not new, but this is the first time that researchers demonstrate moving the wall through spin wave propagation.

The EU launched a new Spintronics research project called MOSAIC (MicrOwave Spintronics as an AlternatIve Path to Components and Systems for Telecommunications, Storage and Security Applications), which aims to explore a new generation of microwave components and systems based on spintronics.

The basic idea is to exploit the concept of transfer of spin angular momentum from conduction electrons to the local magnetization in a magnetic nano-object. This is a very efficient mechanism for driving very large amplitude magnetization oscillations and thus generating microwave voltage signals in the frequency range from 0.2 GHz up to 65 GHz. The project will not just research these technologies further, but it will also, by developing appropriate microwave systems, demonstrate that spintronics microwave components present an alternative path for telecommunications, data storage and automation, security and control applications.

Several experiments have shown that graphene has as much as 1000 times lower spin-relaxation time than predicted. Now researchers from the University of British Columbia have discovered that magnetic defects may be behind this.

Researchers from the US Ames Laboratory in collaboration with Iowa State University and Greece's University of Crete have developed a new way to switch magnetism that is at least 1000 times faster than current technologies. The new technology uses all-optical quantum methods. Magnetic memory switching is used in hard drives and MRAM and this new technology will enable terahertz (or faster) memories.

The new switching technology uses short laser pulses to change the magnetic structure (from anti-ferromagnetic to ferromagnetic ordering) in colossal magnetoresistive materials (CMRs). Current technologies use thermal magnetic switching, which makes it difficult to exceed gigahertz speeds. CMR materials however do not require heat to trigger switching. Those materials however are highly responsive to external magnetic fields. In these materials switching occurs by manipulating spin and charge quantum mechanically.

Researchers from Tohoku University have shown that electron spins can be preserved for long distances using optimized organic compounds. This is because organic compounds are made mostly from carbon, in which the spin–orbit interaction is quite small. Using fullerene (C60) films the researchers made devices in which electrons traveled up to 110 nm at room temperature while preserving their spin.

The researchers used fullerence because there's no hydrogen in it (common in other organic materials) and this helps reduce the hyper fine interactions between electron and nuclear spins that can induce spin-flipping events. They built an organic spin valve in which two ferromagnetic electrons are placed in contact with an organic layer.