Prediction of intrinsic magnetism at silicon surfaces could lead to single-spin magnetoelectronics
Thursday, August 26, 2010 - 15:49
in Physics & Chemistry
The integration of single-spin magnetoelectronics into standard silicon technology may soon be possible, if experiments confirm a new theoretical prediction by physicists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The researchers predict that a family of well-known silicon surfaces, stabilised by small amounts of gold atoms, is intrinsically magnetic despite having no magnetic elements. None of these surfaces has yet been investigated experimentally for magnetism, but the new predictions are already supported indirectly by existing data. The complete findings of the study are published in the August 24, 2010, issue of the journal Nature Communications...
