Spintronics

Electrons have the basic properties of mass, charge and spin. Until recently most data storage and processgin devices made use of only the charge property of an electron. In Spintronics the aim is to use the spin state as well, which can be "up" or "down". The spin of an electron creates a tiny magnetic field that makes the electron act like a tiny magnet. Just as the positive or negative values of an electrical charge are used to store data as 0s and 1s, the "up" and "down" states of the spin of an electron can be used to store data. Modern electronics is based on the manipulation of electrical charge in semiconductor devices. To increase the processing speed and power it relies on the miniaturization of these devices. Spintronics employs two degrees of freedom - the charge as well as the spin - of conducting electrons to create a new class of electronic devices that will be smaller in size but with a quantum increase in processing speed and functionalities. The first major breakthrough in Spintronics was the discovery of the Giant Magneto Resistance (GMR) effect in 1988 by Albert Fert and Peter Gruenberg. With GMR technology there has been a 10,000 fold increase in the capacity of hard disc drives. Another recent breakthrough product is Magneto Resistive RAM (MRAM), which uses electron spin to store information.