spINTRONICS

Spintronics (meaning "spin transport electronics), also known as magnetoelectronics, is an emerging technology that exploits both the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-state devices. The idea is to use the electron's spin, as well as it's charge. Electrons can spin in two directions (Spin-Up, Spin-Down, which is actually clockwise and anti-clockwise), and the spin is detectable as weak magnetic energy.

Introduction

HISTORY

[5]

1988 - Giant Magnetoresistive Effect (GME) discovered by Albert Fert in France and Peter Gruenberg in Germany. 1997 - first GMR (Giant magnetoresistive) Harddisk head introduced by IBM.

2001 - University of Arkansas physicists have successfully injected a stream of electrons with identical spins into a semiconductor. 2002 - A new device allows the polarization (or spin) of an electron to determine the switching of the device

HISTORY
2005- New Spintronic Speed Record - 2GHz MRAM devised. 2007-First breakthrough in applying spin-based electronics to silicon
o Researchers have taken the first step toward building siliconbased computers that use a fraction of the power of today's machines. A team has injected electrons into silicon in such a way that their spins, or magnetic orientations, tend to be aligned in one direction instead of the other.

2008-IBM shows New racetrack memory technology

o racetrack memory, so named because the data "races" around the wire "track," could lead to solid state electronic devices - with no moving parts, and therefore more durable

HISTORY
2009
o Scientists prove the existance of a 'spin battery o Korean researchers created the first first spin field-effect transistor The transistor's basic structure of source, gate and drain is similar to the complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor (CMOS) model used for making microprocessors and other integrated circuits. o Researchers manipulated and detected spin at room temperature for the first time

HISTORY
2011
o Researchers managed to generate a spin current in Graphene o Researchers manufactured a spintronics nano-switch using self-organized magnetic molecules by coating synthetic adhesives on magnetic molecules so that the molecules fitted themselves on a nanotube without any interference.

THEORY
The spin of the electron is an angular momentum intrinsic to the electron that is separate from the angular momentum due to its orbital motion.

THEORY
The electron's spin is 1/2h , implying that the electron acts as a Fermion by the spin-statistics theorem. Like orbital angular momentum, the spin has an associated magnetic moment, the magnitude of which is expressed as

THEORY
In a magnetic field, an electron has different energies when electron spin is parallel or antiparallel with the field. Directional and coherent motion of electron spin circulates a spin current, which will carry or transport information and control quantum spin in an spintronic device.

THEORY
The simplest method of generating a spin-polarised current in a metal is to pass the current through a ferromagnetic material. The most common application of this effect is a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) device.

ELECTRON SPIN

ELECTRON SPIN

ELECTRON SPIN

APPLICATIONS
Room-temperature Spintronic transistors [1]
o transistor that can be used to align electron spin for a record period of time in silicon chips at room temperature. o The researchers used electricity and magnetic fields to inject "spin polarized carriers" - namely, electrons with their spins aligned either all up or all down - into silicon at room temperature.

APPLICATIONS
Spin battery might be used to drive cars in the future[2]
o a battery that is "charged" by applying a large magnetic field to nanomagnets in a device called a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) o The new technology converts the magnetic energy directly into electrical energy, without a chemical reaction. The electrical current made in this process is called a spin polarized current and finds use in a new technology called "spintronics."

APPLICATIONS
THE SPINTRONIC SCANNER FOR CANCER DETECTION[3]
o After surgery and the removal of the tumor, the patient is exposed to a strong magnetic field o Now the polarized electron beam is applied over the unaffected part and spin orientation of electrons are determined using polarimeter o Then the same polarized beam is targeted over the affected part of the body and from the reflected beam, change in spin is determined

APPLICATIONS
Plastic Computer Memory Device That Utilizes Electron Spin to Read and Write Data[4]
o Used as Alternative to Traditional Semiconductors

APPLICATIONS
Magnetoresistive Devices An alternative to traditional microelectronics, socalled "spintronics" could store more data in less space, process data faster, and consume less power

APPLICATIONS
Metal-based spintronic devices
o A typical GMR device consists of at least two layers of ferromagnetic materials separated by a spacer layer. When the two magnetization vectors of the ferromagnetic layers are aligned, the electrical resistance will be lower (so a higher current flows at constant voltage) than if the ferromagnetic layers are anti-aligned. This constitutes a magnetic field sensor.

ADVANTAGE
Normal electronics encode computer data based on a binary code of ones and zeros. They refer to this orientation as spin -- either "spin up" or "spin down" -- and have been working on a way to store data using spin. The resulting electronics, dubbed spintronics, would effectively let computers store and transfer twice as much data per electron.

ADVANTAGE
The main advantage that spintronic devices have over today's electronic devices is the fact that unlike electronic devices they do not only use charge of the electrons but also their spin, which is way they are significantly more efficient. Spintronics does not require unique and specialised semiconductor

DRAWBACKS
Spin of electrons cannot be instantaneously monitored. Spintronic devices can only be manufactured at nano scale.

BIBILIOGRAPHY
[1]http://www.spintronics-info.com/researchersuniversity-utah-develop-new-room-temperaturespintronic-transistors [2] http://www.spintronics-info.com/researchersprove-existance-spin-battery-might-be-used-drivecars-future [3]http://www.scribd.com/doc/7278424/Applicatio n-of-Spintronics [4]http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/ 100809171533.htm [5] http://www.spintronics-info.com/history