On February 2, a research group of Assistant Professor Koichiro Yaji of the Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Tokyo and Professor Koyoshi Kobayashi of Ochanomizu University, by controlling the laser beam, freely spins the nature of electrons as a micro magnet. Announced that it was able to operate.
Electrons have two properties, electrical "charge" and magnetic "spin", but in the field of electronics so far, only electric charge has been used.However, in recent years, attention has been paid to the possibility of device application at higher speed and lower power consumption if spin can be controlled together with electric charge.
This time, the research group succeeded in extracting only electrons whose spins are aligned in a specific direction from a substance by using laser light.Specifically, by setting the polarization direction of the laser to an arbitrary angle, upward and downward spins are emitted at the same time.By superimposing them, we succeeded in creating spins in any direction.
This result has become a basic concept in the development of electron sources such as spin control and spin polarization that apply light, especially in the field of spintronics, and various applications and developments are expected.
