Spintronics: computation and memory technology using electron spin

Scientists are studying a new phenomenon called "colossal magnetoresistance effect" (CMR), which is up to a thousand times more powerful than Giant Mmagnetoresistance effect (GMR) which is used in hard-drives today.

The researchers found that when a manganite was subjected to conditions above 230,000 times atmospheric pressure it underwent a transition in which its magnetic ordering changed from a ferromagnetic type (electron spins aligned) to an antiferromagnetic type (electron spins opposed). This transition was accompanied by a non-uniform structural distortion called the Jahn-Teller effect.

They are potential cornerstones in future magnetic data storage and spintronic devices provided a simple and fast way can be found to turn their electric and magnetic properties on and off.

Ramesh and his colleagues at the Berkeley Lab, working with a prototypical multiferroic, have successfully demonstrated just such a switch - electric fields.

Read more at the Thaindian news

There are 3 new books released (actually not just yet, but ready for pre-order) related to Spintronics: 

• Magnetic Nanoparticles
• Nanomagnetism and Spintronics
• Nanomagnetism and Spintronics: Fabrication, Materials, Characterization and Applications

NVE reported their 4Q results today. Total revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 increased 14% to $6.90 million. Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 increased 38% to $3.11 million.

NVE also signed a 3-year supply agreement with Phonak AG, a hearding aid producer.

A material just six atoms thick in which electrons appear to be guided by conflicting laws of physics depending on their direction of travel has been discovered by a team of physicists at the University of California, Davis. Working with computational models, the team has found that the electrons in a thin layer of vanadium dioxide sandwiched between insulating sheets of titanium dioxide exhibit one set of properties when moving in forward-backward directions, and another set when moving left to right.

With its unique properties, the material could open up a new world of possibilities in the emerging field of spintronics technology, which takes advantage of the magnetic as well as the electric properties of electrons in the design of novel electronic devices.

Researchers have developed a new technique to flip the spin of unpaired electons - Ballistic Spin Resonance.

Previous methods to do this - Electron Spin Resonance using high-frequency electric fields is difficult to generate on a chip. The new method should make it easier. The major drawback of the new method - the electrons are flipped in a random way... you can't actually choose the spin. Future studies hope to overcome this.

Read more at NanoWerk

Researchers from the Queen Mary University of London and Switzerland-based Paul Scherrer Institute have succeeded to measure how magnetic polarisation is lost. The resulting improved understanding of the workings of electronic devices using the spin degree of freedom, and the field of organic spintronics in general, finally paves the way for ensuring higher efficiencies in spin transfer, and thus for the future of spin-based electronic devices.

The researchers came out with a new depth-resolved technique for measuring the spin polarisation of current-injected electrons in an organic spin valve and found that the temperature dependence of the measured spin diffusion length was correlated to the device’s magneto-resistance. The scientists used elementary particles called muons that act as tiny magnets, to measure the magnetic field within the device.

Also known as Spin-Dependent Tunneling (SDT), Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ), or Tunneling Magnetic Junction (TMJ), Tunneling Magnetoresistance is a spintronic quantum effect that produces a dramatic resistance change in a normally insulating layer, depending on the magnetic field and thus the predominant electron spin in a free layer. The new device has four TMR elements configured as an angle sensor with full quadrature sine and cosine outputs.

We have updated our site's design... with a much cleaner look. Hopefully this will make reading and finding information easier.

I'd love to hear your comments on the new look!

The device created by University of Miami Physicist Stewart E. Barnes, of the College of Arts and Sciences and his collaborators can store energy in magnets rather than through chemical reactions. Like a winding up toy car, the spin battery is "wound up" by applying a large magnetic field --no chemistry involved.