Sunday, January 23, 2011

This is a Big Deal: "Curved carbon for electronics of the future"

Depending on how far this discovery can be taken. we may be looking at a Nobel Prize in Physics.
From PhysOrg:

January 23, 2011 Curved carbon for electronics of the future
An electron has a magnetic field attached -- the so-called spin. One can imagine that all electrons carry around a little bar magnet. In flat graphite layers the small bar magnets point in random directions. By bending the atom thin graphite layer into a tube with a diameter of just a few nanometers the individual electrons are forced to move in simple circles around the tube and all the spins align in the direction of the tube. This feature can be used in future nanoelectronics. Credit: Thomas Sand Jespersen, postdoc, Nanophysics, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

A new scientific discovery could have profound implications for nanoelectronic components. Researchers from the Nano-Science Center at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with Japanese researchers, have shown how electrons on thin tubes of graphite exhibit a unique interaction between their motion and their attached magnetic field – the so-called spin. The discovery paves the way for unprecedented control over the spin of electrons and may have a big impact on applications for spin-based nanoelectronics. The results have been published in the prestigious journal Nature Physics. ...MORE

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