Published in Physics World, 17 Aug 2011
An international group of physicists has demonstrated an electron spin-splitting effect in a semiconductor that is far larger than has ever been seen before. The large Rashba effect – the phenomenon of spin splitting with an applied electric field instead of a magnetic field – could herald the room-temperature operation of spintronic devices.
Spintronics is expected to be one of the next revolutions in computing. The idea is to fabricate devices that operate using not just an electron’s charge, but also its spin. Because the spin of an electron can be switched more quickly than charge can be moved round, these spintronic devices should operate faster and at lower temperatures than their electronic counterparts. […]
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