Integrating materials with magnetic and semiconducting properties into a single device can allow researchers to control the system’s electrons and spins. Only three elements—iron, cobalt, and nickel—possess the room-temperature ferromagnetism needed for developing the magnetic component of such a device. But typically the surface properties of these elements and their alloys make them poor transfers of spin carriers. Now Yuichiro Ando of Kyoto University in Japan and his colleagues have fabricated an iron-based alloy that circumvents this obstacle [1].
To read more, click here.