The DEPSCoR grant will enable Appelbaum and his team to explore the use of spin transport in the semiconductor silicon to enhance the speed and design of integrated circuits for spintronics.

Two Dartmouth researchers have determined that the element chromium displays electrical properties of magnets in surprising ways. This finding can be used in the emerging field of "spintronics," which might someday contribute to new and more energy efficient ways of processing and storing data.

"The phenomena that we have discovered are likely to lead to new applications of chromium," says Yeong-Ah Soh, the lead researcher on the paper and an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth. She worked on the study with Ravi Kummamuru, a former post-doctoral research associate at Dartmouth now at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne.

In two papers published in the April 11 issue of Science, IBM Fellow Stuart Parkin and colleagues at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose describe both the fundamentals of a technology dubbed "racetrack" memory as well as a milestone in that technology. This milestone could lead to electronic devices capable of storing far more data in the same amount of space than is possible today, with lightning-fast boot times, far lower cost and unprecedented stability and durability.

Within the next ten years, racetrack memory, so named because the data "races" around the wire "track," could lead to solid state electronic devices - with no moving parts, and therefore more durable - capable of holding far more data in the same amount of space than is possible today. For example, this technology could enable a handheld device such as an mp3 player to store around 500,000 songs or around 3,500 movies - 100 times more than is possible today - with far lower cost and power consumption. The devices would not only store vastly more information in the same space, but also require much less power and generate much less heat, and be practically unbreakable; the result: massive amounts of personal storage that could run on a single battery for weeks at a time and last for decades.

Graphene is a nanomaterial combining very simple atomic structure with intriguingly complex and largely unexplored physics. Since its first isolation about four years ago researchers suggested a large number of applications for this material in anticipation of future technological revolutions. In particular, graphene is considered as a potential candidate for replacing silicon in future electronic devices.

Theoretical physicists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and Radboud University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands) performed a virtual crash-test of graphene as a material for future spintronic devices, possible components of future computers. The material successfully passed the test, although, with some reservations.

For the first nine months of fiscal 2008, product sales increased 25% to $12.83 million from $10.23 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2007. Total revenue increased 22% to $14.48 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2008 from $11.90 million for the prior-year period. Net income for the nine months of fiscal 2008 was $4.93 million, or $1.04 per diluted share compared to $3.23 million, or $0.67 per diluted share, for the first nine months of fiscal 2007.

Introduction to Spintronics author: Supriyo Bandyopadhyay Marc Cahay asin: 0849331331 binding: Hardcover list price: $89.95 USD amazon price: $56.67 USD

Introduction to Spintronics is an accessible, organized, and progressive presentation of the quantum mechanical concept of spin. The authors build a foundation of principles and equations underlying the physics, transport, and dynamics of spin in solid state systems. They explain the use of spin for encoding qubits in quantum logic processors; clarify how spin-orbit interaction forms the basis for certain spin-based devices such as spintronic field effect transistors; and discuss the effects of magnetic fields on spin-based device performance.

Covers active hybrid spintronic devices, monolithic spintronic devices, passive spintronic devices, and devices based on the giant magnetoresistance effect

Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have generated, modulated and electrically detected a pure spin current in silicon, the semiconductor used most widely in the electronic device industry. Magnetic contacts on the surface of an n-type silicon layer enable generation of a spin current which flows separately from a charge current. The spin orientation is electrically detected as a voltage at a second magnetic contact. The relative magnetizations of these contacts allow full control over the orientation of the spin in the silicon channel. This was accomplished in a lateral transport geometry using lithographic techniques compatible with existing device geometries and fabrication methods.