Scientists researching electronic
devices that promise to extend current technologies beyond the ITRS roadmap –
the industry generated timeline for the development of silicon-based
electronics – have for some time focused on the potential for the field of “spintronics”
to deliver fast, low-power computing. However, progress in the area of computer
logic and information processing has been hobbled by the lack of appropriate
materials, i.e. materials that are both magnetic and semiconducting.
Based on world-leading expertise in
the development of magnetic plastics researchers at The Ohio State University
have developed such a material and have for the first time demonstrated its
integration with a traditional inorganic semiconductor. By depositing the
organic material (vanadium tetracyanoethylene; V[TCNE]~2) on top of a
GaAs-based light emitting diode (LED) the researchers have been able to
demonstrate the electrical transfer of spin (or magnetic information) across
this hybrid organic/inorganic device. By linking this emerging organic material
with well-established GaAs based technologies this result promises the rapid
development of hybrid organic/inorganic spintronic technologies.In addition, this approach to linking organic
and inorganic materials promises completely new avenues of scientific
investigation into the fundamental mechanisms of magnetism and spin-transport
in organic materials.
