Researchers ride waves for better spin current

British researchers have developed a more efficient method of generating current for transferring information in 'spintronics', touted as the successor to the transistor.

Spintronics taps the 'spin' -- instead of the charge -- of an electron for storing, processing and communicating information.

Information is transferred via 'spin currents', which can transfer data without generating heat in a device, according to Cambridge University.

“The major remaining obstacle to a viable spin current technology is the difficulty of creating a volume of spin current large enough to support current and future electronic devices,” the university said, announcing a report published this week in Nature Neuroscience. 

Cambridge researchers working with Professor Segeh Demokritov from Germany’s Muenster University created controlled “enhanced spin currents” through “three-magnon splitting”, which brings spin waves into interaction to boost the spin current.  

"You can find lots of different waves in nature, and one of the fascinating things is that waves often interact with each other. Likewise, there are a number of different interactions in spin waves,” said Dr Hidekazu Kurebayashi, from the Microelectronics Group at the Cavendish Laboratory.

“Our idea was to use such spin wave interactions for generating efficient spin currents."

Spintronics could allow the technology industry to improve processing power in step with Moore's Law, despite shrinking transistors and devices.