Inter-american materials research into nanostructures for spintronics: using spin-orbit interaction for coherent spin control (inter-american collaboration in materials research)

信息和计算技术的未来将围绕三个词：更小、更酷、更快。自旋电子学--基于电子自旋而不是电子电荷的电子--最近因其推动这项技术向前发展的潜力而受到极大关注。最近的几项实验证明，有可能制造出运行在单自旋上的纳米级设备；这些设备产生的热量将远远低于传统设备；自旋的量子粒子比电荷的量子粒子要强大得多，使得许多计算问题的计算速度大幅提高。自旋电子学最大的绊脚石之一是难以控制固态设备中的自旋。半导体结构允许只通过改变静电门上的电压来控制电荷，但自旋还不存在类似的东西。现在，控制自旋意味着使用铁磁体，应用强磁场或使用激光对自旋进行光学准备和检测是一项实现全电子设备的提议，该设备利用自旋-轨道相互作用控制自旋。该提议将朗讯技术公司为这种合作开发的新材料与如何利用自旋-轨道相互作用建立有用设备的新理论见解相结合。未来几年将在自旋电子学领域带来重要的里程碑，这一提议使加拿大保持在这些进步的前沿。

The future of information and computing technologies will revolve around three words: smaller, cooler, faster.  Spintronics--electronics based on electron spin rather than electron charge--has received much recent attention for its potential to push this technology forward.  Several recent experiments have proven that it is possible to build nanometer-scale devices that operate on a single spin; these devices would generate far less heat than conventional ones; and quantum propteries of spin are far more robust than those of charge, allowing dramatic speedups for many computational problems.One of the biggest stumbling blocks for spintronics is the difficulty of controlling spins in solid state devices.  Semiconducting structures allow charges to be controlled simply by changing the voltages on electrostatic gates, but the analog does not yet exist for spin.  Right now, controlling spin means working with ferromagnets, applying large magnetic fields or using lasers for optical preparation and detection of spinThis is a proposal to realize an all-electrical device that controls spin using a spin-orbit interaction.  The proposal integrates new materials from Lucent Technologies that are being developed for this collaboration with new theoretical insights about how to use spin-orbit interaction to build a useful device.  The next few years will bring important milestones in the field of spintronics, and this proposal keeps Canada at the forefront of those advances.