(June 25, 2015) An electronics
technology that uses the “spin”—or magnetization—of atomic nuclei to store and
process information promises huge gains in performance over today’s
electron-based devices. But getting there is proving challenging.
Now, researchers at the University of Chicago’s Institute
for Molecular Engineering have made a crucial step toward nuclear spintronic
technologies. They have gotten nuclear spins to line themselves up in a
consistent, controllable way, and they have done it using a high-performance
material that is practical, convenient and inexpensive.
“Our results could lead to new technologies like
ultra-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear gyroscopes and even
computers that harness quantum mechanical effects,” said Abram Falk, the lead
author of the report on the research, which was featured as the cover article
of the June 17 issue of Physical Review Letters. Falk and colleagues in David
Awschalom’s IME research group invented a new technique that uses infrared
light to align spins. They did so using silicon carbide, an industrially
important semiconductor.