Latest Spintronics Stories

Quantum entanglement achieved in solid-state circuitryFor the first time, physicists have convincingly demonstrated that physically separated particles in solid-state devices can be quantum-mechanically entangled. The achievement is analogous to the quantum entanglement of light, except that it involves particles in circuitry instead of photons in optical systems. Both optical and solid-state entanglement offer potential routes to quantum computing and secure communications, but solid-state...

First direct evidence of quantum critical point in iron-based 'pnictides'New experiments on a recently discovered class of iron-based superconductors suggest that the ability of their electrons to conduct electricity without resistance is directly connected with the magnetic properties of those electrons.Results of the experiments appear in the Jan. 8 issue of Physical Review Letters. The tests, which were carried out by a team of U.S. and Chinese physicists, shed light on the fundamental...

Quantum physicists simulate Dirac equation, 1 of the cornerstones in physicsResearchers of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) in Innsbruck, Austria, used a calcium ion to simulate a relativistic quantum particle, demonstrating a phenomenon that has not been directly observable so far: the Zitterbewegung. They have published their findings in the current issue of the journal Nature.In the 1920s quantum mechanics was already established and in 1928 the British...

Achieving an important new capability in ultracold atomic gases, researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute, a collaboration of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland, have created "synthetic" magnetic fields for ultracold gas atoms, in effect "tricking" neutral atoms into acting as if they are electrically charged particles subjected to a real magnetic field. The demonstration, described in the latest issue of the journal...

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Naval Research Laboratory have developed a new way to introduce magnetic impurities in a semiconductor crystal by prodding it with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Detailed in a recent paper,* this technique will enable researchers to selectively implant atoms in a crystal one at a time to learn about its electrical and magnetic properties on the atomic scale.A better understanding of these properties is...

To exploit the quantum world to the fullest, a key commodity is entanglement"”the spooky, distance-defying link that can form between objects such as atoms even when they are completely shielded from one another. Now, physicists at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaborative organization of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland, have developed a promising new source of entangled photons using quantum dots tweaked with a laser. The...

First, it was the soccer-ball-shaped molecules dubbed buckyballs. Then it was the cylindrically shaped nanotubes. Now, the hottest new material in physics and nanotechnology is graphene: a remarkably flat molecule made of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal rings much like molecular chicken wire.Not only is this the thinnest material possible, but it also is 10 times stronger than steel and it conducts electricity better than any other known material at room temperature. These and graphene's...

Does your laptop sometimes get so hot that it can almost be used to fry eggs? New technology may help cool it and give information technology a unique twist, says Jairo Sinova, a Texas A&M University physics professor.Sinova and colleagues from Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, Institute of Physics ASCR, University of Cambridge and University of Nottingham have had their research published in the renowned journal Nature Physics.Laptops are getting increasingly powerful, but as their sizes are...

A multidisciplinary team of UC researchers is the first to find an innovative and novel way to control an electron's spin orientation using purely electrical means.Their findings were recently published in the prestigious, high-profile journal "Nature Nanotechnology," in an article titled "All-Electric Quantum Point Contact Spin-Polarizer."For decades, the transistors inside radios, televisions and other everyday electronic items have transmitted data by controlling the...

Previously predicted but unobserved interactions between massless particles may lead to speedy, powerful electronic devicesRutgers researchers have discovered novel electronic properties in two-dimensional sheets of carbon atoms called graphene that could one day be the heart of speedy and powerful electronic devices.The new findings, previously considered possible by physicists but only now being seen in the laboratory, show that electrons in graphene can interact strongly with each other....