While the rest of the world goes through life taking the Silicon-based electronics around them for granted, a group of researchers is looking to the future of computing technology. A group of physicists at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have discovered a new type of exotic material that could be used to create the next generation of faster, more efficient computing hardware. The days of “electronics” are over, make way for “spintronics!”
You see, physicists have theorized the existence of certain materials called “topological insulators.” These topological insulators were predicted to allow electrons to freely flow across its surface (hence, “topological”) without any energy loss. And, it turns out that they’re real! Physicists Yulin Chen, Zhi-Xun Shen and the research team’s discovery of a compound, called bismuth telluride, has been confirmed to allow electrons to flow across its surface without losing any energy.
By aligning an electron’s quantum spin with its motion – known as the quantum spin Hall effect – an electron can move across a topological insulator without any energy lost to heat or dissipation. Because it relies on the “spin” of an electron, the new technology is referred to as “spintronics.”
The discovery of a working topological insulator also opens the door to this new world of computing – one where electrons aren’t merely used as circuit-signals, but where electrons can actually carry information. The same quantum spin alignment that allows these electrons to flow without energy loss also allows the electrons to carry information. By altering the quantum spin of the electrons flowing across the topological insulator, engineers could theoretically transmit information on the sub-atomic level.
“This [discovery] could lead to new applications of spintronics, or using the electron spin to carry information,” Qi said. “Whether or not it can build better wires, I’m optimistic it can lead to new devices, transistors, and spintronics devices.”
How does that affect the mobile space? Well, it may be some time before we see “spintronics” computing hitting smartphones, but there will come a day when the tech trickles down to the mobile world. When that happens, the mobile computer that we call a “smartphone” today will be much faster, have much more computing power (spintronics) and probably draw even less power than the “electronic” microchips we use today!
The future awaits.
[Via: CN]