NIST - Page 2

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have made the first confirmed “spintronic” device incorporating organic molecules, a potentially superior approach for innovative electronics that rely on the spin, and associated magnetic orientation, of electrons. The physicists created a nanoscale test structure to obtain clear evidence of the presence and action of specific molecules and magnetic switching behavior.

Spintronic devices usually are made of inorganic materials. The use of organic molecules may be preferable, because electron spins can be preserved for longer time periods and distances, and because these molecules can be easily manipulated and self-assembled. However, until now, there has been no experimental confirmation of the presence of molecules in a spintronic structure. The new NIST results are expected to assist in the development of practical molecular spintronic devices.

A gyromagnetic effect discovered by Albert Einstein and Dutch physicist Wander Johannes de Haas - the rotation of an object caused by a change in magnetization - has been measured at micrometer-scale dimensions for the first time at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The new method may be useful in the development and optimization of thin film materials for read heads, memories and recording media for magnetic data storage and spintronics, an emerging technology that relies on the spin of electrons instead of their charge as in conventional electronics.