Browse Physics

In a prototype spintronics device, a magnetic island keeps electrons’ spins polarized as they traverse a semiconductor strip.

Spins in a graphene quantum dot display properties surprisingly similar to those in semiconductor dots, but with potential for longer coherence times.

The spin polarization in certain organic molecules adsorbed on a magnetic surface depends on how strongly the molecules are bound—a property that could be tailored toward making organic spintronics devices.

The exactly quantized magneto-optical response of a topological insulator is a direct result of the Berry phase protected states on its surface.

Theoretical methods have greatly influenced experiment in search of the elusive marriage between semiconductor electronics and magnetism, and the development of spintronics. The path has not always been a straight one, but realizing the limitations and strengths of theoretical approaches promises a straighter course.

Nuclear spins may enable enhanced control of electron spins in quantum information devices.

Ever present fluctuations in semiconductors can be utilized as a demolition-free spectroscopic probe to study ultrafast spin dynamics.

A single $30$-femtosecond pulse has been used to observe x-ray diffraction of a magnetic material, potentially opening the way to ultrafast probing of spin dynamics with nanometer spatial resolution.

Thermal magnetic fluctuations, usually thought of as a barrier to magnetic information storage and processing, can be harnessed to make green, low-energy magnetic applications a possibility.

New experiments indicate that the intrinsic regime of the anomalous Hall effect is independent of scattering.

The magnetic state of a multiferroic device can be controlled purely by an electric field—a property that could greatly reduce overheating in data storage devices.

A dual spin valve with antiparallel outer layers is used to demonstrate a new form of current-dependent giant magnetoresistance.

A microscopic study of magnetic nanoislands on a surface challenges the widely held view that all atoms in a relaxing nanoparticle flip their spins in unison.

The spin-orbit effect is at the heart of efforts to merge spintronics—where information is carried and stored by spin, rather than by charge—with semiconductor technology.

Creating a practical solid-state quantum computer is seriously hard. Getting such a computer to operate at room temperature is even more challenging. Is such a quantum computer possible at all? If so, which schemes might have a chance of success?

Optical measurements in electron gases at low temperatures and high magnetic fields show the electron spins are, as predicted, polarized, but that this state is surprisingly delicate.

Two theoretical studies reveal how one might achieve electric-field control of spin in semiconductors, both in an impurity-localized electron, and also with a quantum dot molecule.

Using a double spin-filter tunnel junction consisting of two magnetic insulating layers, researchers have observed a sizeable magnetoresistance without using magnetic electrodes, thus tuning the tunneling via the magnetic state of the insulating layers and by application of an electric voltage.

A magnetic domain wall moving along a ferromagnetic wire can generate a voltage across the wire. This electromotive force, which is not the same as Faraday’s law of induction, is part of a growing family of interactions that are being discovered in the field of spintronics.

The presence of iron in gold has long been known to lead to an increase in gold’s low-temperature resistivity. Theorists argue that this “Kondo effect” may have implications for spintronics as well.