New research from a team of DU physicists has the potential to serve as the foundation for next-generation computer technology.
In the quest to make computers faster and more efficient, researchers have been exploring the field of spintronics—shorthand for spin electronics—in hopes of controlling the natural spin of the electron to the benefit of electronic devices. The discovery, made by Professor Barry Zink and his colleagues, opens a new era for experimental and theoretical studies of spin transport, a method of harnessing that natural magnetization, or spin, of electrons.
"Our approach requires a fundamentally different way of thinking about the nature of how spin moves through a material," Zink says.
Computers currently rely on electrons to process information, moving data through tiny, nano-sized wires. These electrons generate heat, however, as they travel through the wires. This heat, along with other factors, limits computer speed.
Past research has successfully demonstrated spin transport using crystalline, or ordered, materials as magnetic insulators. In Zink's new study, recently published in Nature Physics, the team was able to demonstrate spin transport through a synthetic material that is notably amorphous, or non-ordered, both magnetically and structurally.
The discovery is significant because manufacturing this amorphous synthetic material, known as yttrium iron garnet, is easier than growing the silicon crystals currently used in computer processors.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-physicists-technology.html#jCp
New research from a team of DU physicists has the potential to serve as the foundation for next-generation computer technology.
In the quest to make computers faster and more efficient, researchers have been exploring the field of spintronics—shorthand for spin electronics—in hopes of controlling the natural spin of the electron to the benefit of electronic devices. The discovery, made by Professor Barry Zink and his colleagues, opens a new era for experimental and theoretical studies of spin transport, a method of harnessing that natural magnetization, or spin, of electrons.
"Our approach requires a fundamentally different way of thinking about the nature of how spin moves through a material," Zink says.
Computers currently rely on electrons to process information, moving data through tiny, nano-sized wires. These electrons generate heat, however, as they travel through the wires. This heat, along with other factors, limits computer speed.
Past research has successfully demonstrated spin transport using crystalline, or ordered, materials as magnetic insulators. In Zink's new study, recently published in Nature Physics, the team was able to demonstrate spin transport through a synthetic material that is notably amorphous, or non-ordered, both magnetically and structurally.
The discovery is significant because manufacturing this amorphous synthetic material, known as yttrium iron garnet, is easier than growing the silicon crystals currently used in computer processors.