by josh perry, editor
[email protected]

researchers at the university of california – riverside (ucr) have developed methods for detecting signals from spintronic components composed of low-cost metals and silicon, which is a significant advance towards the application of spintronic devices in computing and data storage.

ucr researchers have developed methods to detect signals from spintronic components made of low-cost metals and silicon. (university of california – riverside)

in previous studies, according to a report from the school, spintronic devices required rare and expensive materials that limited the potential for widespread use of this technology.

spintronics could lead to an advancement in computing because the devices produce little heat and only use small amounts of electricity. as the article noted, computers with spintronic components would start instantly, require very little energy, and would be more powerful than current devices.

“spintronic materials register binary data via the ‘up’ or ‘down’ spin orientation of electrons—like the north and south of bar magnets—in the materials,” the article explained. “a major barrier to development of spintronics devices is generating and detecting the infinitesimal electric spin signals in spintronic materials.”

ucr scientists heated one side of a permalloy-silicon bi-layer sandwich to create a temperature gradient and generate electrical voltage. the spin current was detected because of the inverse spin-hall effect.

in two other papers, the researchers also described the creation of antiferromagnetism in silicon, which means that neighboring atoms are magnetically-oriented in opposite directions because of the spin of the electrons in the atoms.

read the papers at http://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5003008, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s0304885317335023?via%3dihub, and http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pssb.201700545/abstract.