Breakthrough in ‘spintronic’

PORTLAND: Research being funded by Intel Corporation and other companies has resulted in a breakthrough in ‘spintronic’ that encodes information on the spin of electrons – either ‘up’ or ‘down’ – instead of charge. This enables ultra-low-power operation for nonvolatile circuitry, which remembers its state even when switched off.

According to researchers, the new, promising spintronic material category – called a dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS) – till now required manganese-doped compound semiconductors like indium arsenide or gallium arsenide. But, now researchers have discovered that germanium quantum dots enable electric field-controlled ferromagnetism in a material compatible with conventional CMOS.

It is through the mechanism of ferromagnetism that spin is encoded onto electrons.

Kang Wang, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), says that researchers have achieved success on electric field-controlled ferromagnetism at 100 degrees Kelvin, and are moving towards room temperature.

Conventional methods of creating a magnetic field call for passing a ‘power-hungry’ electrical current through a coil. The researchers at UCLA say they think that they can impart spin using the same ferromagnetic mechanism, but with a simple electric field which does not require current to conduct – thereby enabling consumption of very low power for its spintronic devices.