An Indian scientist's cutting-edge invention

AC Ganesh

Indian born USA

scientist Dr. Jagadeesh S. Moodera and his multinational team of researchers

were in limelight having developed a novel magnetic semiconductor that may

greatly increase the computing power and flexibility of future electronic

devices, while dramatically reducing their power consumption.

The magnetic

semiconductor material, which is seen as a major step forward in the field of

spin-based electronics - or "spintronics", where the spin state of electrons is

exploited to carry, manipulate and store information.

Some e-gadgets

like laptops, mobile phones and iPods already employ spintronics to store

information in their super-high-capacity magnetic hard drives and using electron

spin states to process information through circuits would be a dramatic advance

in computing.

Dr. Moodera, a

senior scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Magnet Lab

explains what spintronics is all about in an e-mail interview to CIOL

Bureau.

Tell us about

the new technology and its benefits?

The field of

spintronics aims to use spin as well as the charge to store and communicate

information. In that sense, more information can be stored, processed and works

faster also. One of the biggest advantages is its ability to retain the data —

nonvolatile, saving energy.

For example,

what one paid for a 100Mb hard drive 10-15 years ago will fetch now a days

perhaps 400Gb hard drive. That is nearly 40,000 times cheaper!! Can you imagine

anything that has become so cheap in 15 years? You see, there is the advantage

to the end user. Incidentally, hard drives now-a-days already use spintronics

devices in some form.

We hope to

create spin based semiconductor devices for information processing, such as

SpinFET (spin field effect transistor) reprogrammable logic, multifunctional

devices, in the distant future even towards the development of quantum computers

etc.

I am excited

about this field and we are in its infancy — similar to what was semiconductor

electronics was in the sixties may be. There is plenty of growth opportunity for

both basic science and technological benefits. A tree is not created overnight -

it takes lots of tender care and nurturing to reach the goal. One has to be

patient! 

How will

organizations in the field of ICT benefit out of it?

Just like more powerful hard drives, flash memories and DRAMS have helped the IT
industry, with the availability of denser, faster and nonvolatile devices,

things are expected to improve dramatically.

Tell us about

the team?

The team

consists of post doctoral associates, graduate students and visiting scientists.

Periodically high school students and undergraduate students take part in

research as well. It is a totally multinational team, currently with people from

seven different countries. Then there are our collaborators from other

universities and institutions.

Are Indians in

the forefront of Spintronics?

There certainly

are people of Indian origin in the field. For example, Prof. K. V Rao at

Stockholm (Sweden) and his team, Prof. S. B. Ogale and his team in University of

Maryland (USA), Dr. T. Banerjee in Twente University (The Netherlands), Prof. R.

N. Bhat in Princeton U (USA), Prof. A. Punnoose at Boise State U (USA), Dr. M.

Venkatesan in Trinity College (Ireland) and of course our group here in MIT.

There may be many others. All these people are engaged in the Spintronics

research.

Where do you

think Spintronics is heading from here?

We are at the

initial stages, as mentioned above, although not at the very beginning.  We have

learnt a lot and there is lot more to be sorted out. Certainly more research is

needed. One of the near term approaches would be to hybridize this with the

conventional semiconductors.

Pix credit:

Donna Coveney/MIT