Atomic Spin Imaged for the First Time

In a groundbreaking new finding, the field of spintronics may have just received the boost it needed to take over the electronics industry from conventional approaches. This emerging area of research relies on using spin for storing data. In other words, the quantum mechanical properties of electrons can be used to encode information, but the main obstacle thus far has been the fact that no team has ever been able to see this spin directly. This is precisely what researchers from the United States and Germany managed to achieve, as reported on April 25 in the highly-regarded journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Many experts believe that spintronics represents the most solid foundation for developing the next generation of fast, small, more efficient computers, as well as other high-tech devices. Now, thanks to experts at the Ohio University (OU), and the University of Hamburg, this goal may be closer to reality than ever before. The international collaboration managed to image the spin of individual atoms in action for the first time, using a microscope they built especially for this task.

The instrument was derived from a standard scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), but was outfitted with an iron-coated tip. This allowed investigators to use a plate of manganese as a substrate on which to individually manipulate cobalt atoms. Using the tip of the STM, the team was able to position single atoms on the substrate, a feat that changed the electrons' spin. At the same time, the microscope was used to capture images of the process. Results have the major implication that scientists are now able to observe and manipulate the spin of single atoms, which could advance the field of spintronics considerably.

“Different directions in spin can mean different states for data storage. The memory devices of current computers involve tens of thousands of atoms. In the future, we may be able to use one atom and change the power of the computer by the thousands,” explains OU Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute associate professor of physics and astronomy Saw-Wai Hla. He was one of the main investigators on the new research.