Scientist discovery ‘could make computers faster’

Scientists at a Scottish university have magnetised gold - in a process that could lead to a new generation of electronics and make computers faster, smaller and more powerful.

St Andrews University discovery could speed up computers

A team of researchers, led by St Andrews University, investigated what happens in a device where a very thin layer of a superconductor - a material that carries electrical current without generating any heat - is sandwiched between a layer of a magnetic material and a layer of gold.

They found under certain conditions the layer of gold becomes magnetic, due to charge carriers flowing out of the superconductor into the metal.

They say the ability to generate and to manipulate magnetic currents in this way has the potential for applications in new types of electronic devices in future.

Research fellow Machiel Flokstra, who led the experiment, said: “Superconductors are materials that, if cooled sufficiently, lose their resistance, that is, they carry electricity without dissipating heat. This is possible because the electrons that carry the electrical charge bind together into pairs that are able to move without losing energy. Each electron is itself like a tiny bar magnet, since these charged electrons spin about their own axes.

“When they form into superconducting pairs, these electronic ‘spins’ align oppositely, so that the magnetic fields cancel out. It transpires that in these new devices these pairs of electrons can be separated into two currents moving in opposite directions, one with magnetic fields - ‘spins’- pointing up and one with them pointing down.”

Dr Flokstra, of the School of Physics and Astronomy at St Andrews, added: “The idea of generating ‘spin currents’ is the basis of the emerging field of spintronics. In conventional electronics only electrical charges can be manipulated, but it is hoped in the field of spintronics that electron spins can also be controlled, leading to novel advanced electronic devices.”

The experiments involved a large team of collaborators led by Professor Steve Lee of the University of St Andrews and including the University of Bath, the University of Leeds, Royal Holloway and Bedford College (University of London), the ISIS Facility and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.

Simon Bending, professor of physics at the University of Bath, described the breakthrough as “a really ground-breaking piece of research”, the long-term goal of which is to marry the fields of spintronics and superconductivity.

Professor Bending added: “We believe that for the first time we have observed spin accumulation arising from a current of spin-carrying pairs of superconducting electrons that can be controlled by manipulating the magnetisation direction in a ferromagnetic control electrode. This is the first step to realising superconducting spintronic devices that operate without generating heat and could be the basis for entirely new types of computers that are faster, smaller and more powerful than before.”

The research is published on the “Nature Physics” website.