Cambridge scientists put new spin on electronics
1 min read
Research by scientists at the University of Cambridge and the University of Muenster has determined a way to make the spin in spintronics more efficient.
While conventional electronics technology relies on harnessing the charge of electrons, spintronics depends on manipulating their spin. One spintronics property is the ability to transfer spins without an electric charge current flowing. The approach, called 'spin current', can transfer information without generating heat. However, the challenge is to generate enough spin current.
The Cambridge researchers, along with Professor Sergej Demokritov of the University of Muenster, have addressed this issue. In order to create enhanced spin currents, the researchers used the collective motion of spins, called spin waves. By bringing spin waves into interaction, they have demonstrated a more efficient way of generating spin current.
Dr Hidekazu Kurebayashi, from the Microelectronics Group at the Cavendish Laboratory, said: "You can find lots of different waves in nature and one of the fascinating things is that waves often interact with each other. Likewise, there are a number of different interactions in spin waves. Our idea was to use such spin wave interactions for generating efficient spin currents."
According to their findings, one of the spin wave interactions (called three magnon splitting) generates spin current ten times more efficiently than using preinteracting spin waves. Additionally, the findings link the two major research fields in spintronics, namely the spin current and the spin wave interaction.
