Electrons hold their spin in silicon (May 17)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/5/16
Devices that exploit the spin -- as well as the charge -- of electrons
could be one step closer to commercial reality after researchers in the
US claim to have injected spin-polarized electrons into silicon for the
first time. In their tiny device, electrons are made to flow from a
ferromagnetic alloy into a piece of silicon, where they travel for a
distance of about 1 µm without losing their polarization. The team has
also been able to rotate the electron spins as they travel through the
silicon and finally extract the electrons and measure their polarization
(Nature 447 295).
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