Researchers have created nanoribbons of an emerging class of materials called topological insulators and used a magnetic field to control their semiconductor properties, a step toward harnessing the technology to study exotic physics and building new spintronic devices or quantum computers.
Unlike ordinary materials that are either insulators or conductors, topological insulators are paradoxically both at the same time - they are insulators inside but conduct electricity on the surface, said Yong P. Chen, a Purdue University associate professor of physics and astronomy and electrical and computer engineering who worked with doctoral student Luis A. Jauregui and other researchers.
The materials might be used for "spintronic" devices and practical quantum computers far more powerful than today's technologies. In the new findings, the researchers used a magnetic field to induce a so-called "helical mode" of electrons, a capability that could make it possible to control the spin state of electrons.
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