Tag Archives: spintronics

Graphene gets spintronics

News: Nanotechnology    April 19, 2011
The basis of microelectronics is the manipulation of charged electrons. The basis of spintronics is the conversion of electricity to magnetism and vice versa in order to manipulate the spin of electrons. Both approaches can produce transistors and other elements used in electronics (computers et al), but spintronics has advantages: Unlike the charge of electrons, [...]
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Nanowire transistors: A next step for digital technology

News: Computer Power    February 9, 2011
Remember “Fast, cheap, good – pick any two?” How about “Fast, small, low power – pick any two?” Doesn’t ring a bell? This ‘perfect trio’ applies to transistors. Typically, if a transistor is fast, it uses energy like crazy. If it’s really small, it gets very hot. Fast and small often go together, but at [...]
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Graphene spintronics: Studies show promise

News: Nanotechnology    January 31, 2011
If you’ve had any contact with the concept of ‘digital devices’ (as in theory of, not the use of) you’ve heard it explained like ‘switches’ (i.e. gates) that are either ON or OFF, zeroes or ones – the binary code – that sort of thing. Information is stored or processed based on a sequence of [...]
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A first: Spintronics made visible

News: Quantum Physics    April 27, 2010
It’s an important emerging field, spintronics; though it’s not too well known. It’s based on a quantum property of electrons – they spin. Some electrons spin ‘up,’ some spin ‘down’ and if you can get a device to read that state of up or down, that’s the basis for many kinds of electronics. This includes [...]
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Fixing the band gap with graphene nanomesh

News: Nanotechnology    March 29, 2010
A band gap in semiconductor terminology is not the difference between two rock groups. Semiconductors – like the silicon of computer chips – are structured in bands of energy where electrons flow along the bands but may or may not be able to move between bands. Two such bands are the valence band (the highest [...]
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