Spintronics

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What Does Spintronics Mean?

Spintronics is a field of electronics concerned with the detection and manipulation of electron spin in solid-state physics. This differs from fundamental electronics in that in addition to electron charge, the electron spin is taken into account and exploited as a further degree of freedom with possible effects toward increasing the efficiency of data storage and transfer. Spintronics is a fundamental application in quantum computing.

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Spintronics is also known as spinelectronics and fluxtronics.

Techopedia Explains Spintronics

Spintronics is a field in nanoscale electronics that involves the detection and control of the electron’s spin. This spin is detected as a magnetic field that has one of two orientations, simply known as up or down. This provides two extra binary states to the electron’s conventional high and low charge states.

With this, there are now four different states that an electron can be in, namely:

  • Down-high
  • Down-low
  • Up-high
  • Up-low

The above states represent quantum bits, called qubits. Because of this doubling in the number states, exponential growth in storage capacity, transfer speeds, greater memory density and processing power may be possible in the near future. With the application of spintronic technology to hard drives, positive results are already being seen. Provided that newer technology can fully control the spin of the electron, then it can be applied to more practical purposes, especially in quantum computing and even in consumer electronics.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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