Spinning a new horizon for electronics

Spintronics has the potential to have as profound an impact on electronics as the development of the transistor had 50 years ago.

This exciting and challenging area of nanotechnology will come under the international spotlight next week when scientists and engineers, from across the world, will gather in York in the UK for a major conference to explore the progress and future of spintronics.

WUN-SPIN 2007 will bring together experts from both academia and industry to share ideas on the how spintronics will affect advanced data storage, microelectronics, automotive sensors, communication and quantum computing.

Spintronics uses electron spin as well as charge to manipulate information processing circuits. Spintronic devices combine the advantages of magnetic materials and semi-conductors, and are likely to be stable, versatile fast and capable of simultaneous date storage as well as being energy-efficient.

The three-day conference at St William’s College, York, will feature presentations from world leading experts as well as contributions from established and young researchers.

Co-organised by the University of York and the International Centre for Materials Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara, it is supported by the Worldwide University Network (WUN).

More than 10 WUN universities have research groups in spintronics and related areas. The organisation has established a Spintronics Grand Challenge Project that will bring together expertise across a range of disciplines to search for major breakthroughs in the technology.

Representatives from some of the world’s leading electronics companies, including IBM, Seagate and Toshiba, will also address the conference. The aim of the event is to accelerate the production of the world’s first viable spintronics transistor capable of both data processing and storage.

The York conference, which runs from 7 to 10 August, will be the first of a series of three which are part of a framework for establishing the group’s international profile.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of York, Professor Brian Cantor, said: “We are on the threshold of a new era in nanotechnology. With current silicon-based electronics technology likely to reach its limit within a decade, this conference will map out some of the enormous potential of spintronics to address the challenges ahead. It is a great honour for York to host an event of such importance.”

Dr Yongbing Xu, conference co-chair and the coordinator of WUN Spintronics from York Spintronics Laboratory, said: “This conference offers the opportunity for international centres of excellence to exchange ideas and establish close collaborations in this exciting technology.”

Co-chair Professor David D Awschalom, Director of the Centre for Spintronics and Quantum Computation at the University of California, added: “Students will have an extraordinary opportunity to learn about recent research developments, ranging from fundamental spin-dependent effects in semiconductors to the creation of new spintronic materials and devices. We hope that interactions amongst the participants will lead to innovative collaborations and further accelerate the field.”

Chief Executive Officer of WUN, David Pilsbury said: “The hope that spintronics offers for the future will only be realised by collaboration between institutions across the world, so WUN is proud to be supporting this conference and the WUN Grand Challenge in Spintronics.”

Source: University of York

Related stories:

Spinning a new horizon for electronics
Spintronics has the potential to have as profound an impact on electronics as the development of the transistor had 50 years ago.
Researchers Put 'Spin' in Silicon, Advance New Age of Electronics
Electrical engineers from the University of Delaware and Cambridge NanoTech have demonstrated for the first time how the spin properties of electrons in silicon--the world's most dominant semiconductor, used in electronics ranging from computers to cell phones--can be measured and controlled.
Plenty of nothing: A hole new quantum spin
Electronic devices are always shrinking in size but it's hard to imagine anything beating what researchers at the University of New South Wales have created: a tiny wire that doesn't even use electrons to carry a current.
A slice of carbon could work wonders with chips
Move over silicon: the hottest new material in electronics could be sitting inside the humble pencil. At the Institute of Physics' Condensed Matter and Materials Physics conference at the University of Exeter on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 April, Andre Geim of the University of Manchester and his colleagues claim that graphite, the silvery black, soft form of carbon known for thousands of years, could yield a new generation of microelectronic devices, as well as unveiling unprecedented effects in quantum physics.
Researchers Scrutinize 'Spintronics' as History in the Making
Electronic mail, Web sites, conversations, and experiments about the emerging field of nanotechnology might quickly slip into the past without the work of historians working to document them as they occur.
Resonance: A Life of Music, Physics, and Faith
Vanderbilt physics professor Norman Tolk is passionate about music, physics and faith.
Theory and Experiment Collide: Discovery of Phenomenon Important for Future Application of 'Spintronics'
A few years ago a University of Missouri-Columbia professor and his student had a theory, and a few weeks ago a physicist in California proved it. The unusual part is that neither person knew about the work of the other. The work has important applications for the future design of electronic devices using the "spin" instead of the "charge" of an electron.
Zooming way in, technique offers close-ups of electrons, nuclei
Providing a glimpse into the infinitesimal, physicists have found a novel way of spying on some of the universe's tiniest building blocks.Their "camera," described this week in the journal Nature, consists of a special "flaw" in diamonds that can be manipulated into sensitively monitoring magnetic signals from individual electrons and atomic nuclei placed nearby.

News discussion:

Physics news