Spintronics is an emerging technology that deals with the intrinsic spin of an electron and the associated magnetic moment in solid-state devices. The technology is also referred to as magneto electronics or spin transport electronics. Current research is focused on the development of a new generation of spintronic devices that will be more robust and versatile than those currently contained in circuit elements and silicon chips.

How does Spintronics Work?

A spintronic device has a basic scheme. First, information is stored into spins as an orientation (i.e. up or down). Then, the spins that are attached to mobile electrons carry information along a path or wire. The information is then read at a terminal point. Conduction electrons’ spin orientation survive for several nanoseconds, making them useful in electronic circuit and chip design. The most basic way to create a spin-polarized current is to pass current through a ferrous material to impart the spin to the electron carrying the information to the destination point.

Spintronics History

The field of spintronics emerged in the 1980s after a series of discoveries based on spin-dependent electron transport phenomenon and the associated magnetic moment in solid-state devices. Albert Fert’s research into giant magnetoresistance in 1988 and Johnson and Silsbee’s observation of spin-polarized electron injection provided the foundations for the current spintronics field. Datta and Das first proposed using semiconductors in the field in 1990.

What are the Applications of Spintronics?

Motorola developed a 256 km MRAM that is based on a single magnetic tunnel junction with a single transistor. The read/write cycle of the MRAM is less than 50 nanoseconds. Since this development, Everspin created a 4 Mbit version. Some of the second generation development techniques in the MRAM field that Crocus Technology and Crocus, Hynix, and IBM are working on include Thermal Assisted Switching and Spin Torque Transfer. Other research areas using spintronics include Racetrack memory, which encodes information in the direction of magnetization between the domain walls of a ferromagnetic wire, semiconductor lasers, and spin-based transistors.