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Why Spintronics?
Moores Law:
Complexity:
Introduction To Spintronics
Conventional electronic devices rely on the transport of electrical charge carriers electrons in a semiconductor such as silicon. Now, however, physicists are trying to exploit the spin of the electron rather than its charge to create a remarkable new generation of spintronic devices which will be smaller, more versatile and more robust than those currently making up silicon chips and circuit elements. The potential market is worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
The Spin
The spin is represented by a vector. For an electron spinning west to east, the vector points north or up and it points down for the opposite spin. In an ordinary electronic circuit, the spins are oriented at random and have no effect on the current flow.
Spintronic devices create spinpolarized currents and use the spin to control the current flow.
A Giant Magnetoresistive device is made of at least two ferromagnetic layers separated by a spacer layer. When the magnetization of the two outside layers is aligned, the resistance is at its lowest.
An important spintronic device, which is supposed to be one of the first spintronic devices that have been invented, is MRAM. Unlike conventional randomaccess, MRAMs do not lose stored information once the power is turned off.
Quantum Computing
A quantum computer is a machine that performs calculations based on the laws of quantum mechanics, which is the behavior of particles at the sub-atomic level. A bit of data is represented by a single atom that is in one of two states denoted by |0> and |1>. A single bit of this form is known as a qubit. A physical implementation of a qubit could use the two energy levels of an atom. An excited state representing |1> and a ground state representing |0>.
Advantages of Spintronics
Low power consumption. Less heat dissipation. Takes up lesser space on chip, thus more compact. Spin manipulation is faster. Spintronics does not require unique and specialized semiconductors. Common metals such as Fe, Al, etc. can be used.
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