IBM Tech Detects & Changes Spin Of Single Electron
IBM scientists have measured a fundamental magnetic property of a single atom -- the energy required to flip its magnetic orientation.
Source: IBMThis is the first result by a promising new technique they developed to study the properties of nanometer-scale magnetic structures that are expected to revolutionize future information technologies. From spintronics to quantum computing, a large number of dramatically new ideas for electronic, computing and data storage devices are emerging to exploit the remarkable properties resulting from the magnetic orientations of electrons and atoms. "To engineer the anticipated nanoscale features of these new types of circuits, we will need fundamental knowledge of the magnetic properties of small numbers of atoms in various environments," said Andreas Heinrich, research staff member at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. "Our new technique provides this information in much more detail and precision than had been possible before." Spintronics is an emerging class of new electronic circuits that exploit the magnetic orientation of electrons and atoms -- a quantum property called "spin." An electron's spin has two possible conditions, either "up" or "down." Aligning spins in a material creates magnetism. Most materials are non-magnetic because they have equal numbers of up and down electron spins, which cancel each other. But materials such as iron, or cobalt have an unequal numbers of up and down electron spins and are magnetic. In their new result, the IBM researchers measured the energy required to flip the spin of a single manganese atom from "up" to "down."
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