What is Spintronics?

Spintronics meaning “spin transport electronics, is the field of basic and applied research in physics and engineering where the detection and manipulation of electron spin is studied for its potential in electron spins. Also known as magnetoelectronics, here the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge of solid state devices are also considered for future applications. Generally, Electron spin can be detected as a magnetic field having one of two orientations, known as down (0) and up (1). This provides an additional two binary states to the conventional low and high logic values, which are represented by simple currents. With the addition of the spin state to it, a bit can have four possible states (00, 01, 10, 11) which might be called down-low, down-high, up-low, and up-high knows quantum bits (qubits). This additional logic combination may allow higher data transfer speed, greater processing power, increased memory density, and increased storage capacity, provided the properties of electron spin can be sufficiently controlled for practical applications. Applications are diverse from nanoscale electronics to large scale devices such as hard drives.