Putting nanotechnology in a spin

UK universities have developed exciting new international nanotechnology research links in the emerging field of spintronics.

The UK’s cutting-edge research into the pioneering field of nanotechnology has attracted the attention of major international firms, including Japanese electronics companies Nokia, Hitachi and Murata. Nokia and Hitachi both have Research Centres at the University of Cambridge, while Murata has recently embarked upon a major nanotech research collaboration with The University of Manchester.

Now, an area of nanotechnology – called spintronics – offers potential benefits for both industry and technology consumers. Indeed, one of the main research subjects of the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory (HCL) includes work on nanospintronics.

Spintronics exploits the magnetic ‘spin’ properties of individual molecules or atoms - as well as the electronic charges - in metals and other materials used in traditional electronics. It has the potential for a number of commercial and industrial applications, including data storage, microelectronics, sensors, quantum computing and bio-medicine.

Spintronic devices are versatile, fast and consume less energy than their traditional counterparts – and their development has had a revolutionary impact on the IT industry. The potential markets are estimated to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars per year.

UK research boost

Dr Atsufumi Hirohata is lecturer at The University of York’s Department of Electronics, with special research interests in spintronics. He says: “Nanospintronics could replace existing silicon technology which uses conventional electrical currents to process or store data. Nanospintronics can combine everything in a single design.”

Recently, UK research in this field was given an added boost when The London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) – a joint venture between University College London (UCL) and Imperial College London - initiated collaborative projects with research groups at China’s top two universities, Peking University and Tsinghua University.

The projects aim to develop radically new approaches to miniaturization of computer systems, and the work could eventually lead to cheaper and more sophisticated processing computer technologies.

London Centre for Nanotechnology researchers are working with colleagues in China to investigate molecular nanospintronics, and with the University of Surrey to investigate silicon-based spintronics. Both projects are funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Natural Science Foundation of China.

Professor Gabriel Aeppli, Director of the LCN, said: “These projects will allow us to collaborate with two top Chinese universities. China is a rapidly emerging power in advanced research and by collaborating with their scientists, the LCN will be able to take advantage of this.”

Spintronics has already made a big impact on information technology", says Professor Aeppli. “Magnetic disk storage capacity has been increasing at a faster rate than computing power – a growth which accelerated with the exploitation of spintronics beginning in the early Nineties.

“The interesting question for the IT industry now is whether spintronics have any impact on logic, too.”

Huge innovation potential

Alongside its colleagues from LCN, The University of Surrey will work on the silicon spintronics project with Peking University, and implement several student exchanges. The Institute for Plasma Physics in Utrecht, the Netherlands, with whom the University of Surrey has long-standing links, is an additional but informal partner for the project.

Welcoming this relationship between the UK and China, Yu Xiaomei of Peking University, said: "This is an important collaboration between three top international institutions, and we are excited by the prospect of making strides in a research area with huge innovation potential.

“The student exchange programme will also help to reinforce the future knowledge base of the nanotechnology sector, while bringing major cultural and academic benefits to students at Peking University and the University of Surrey."

Leading players in nanospintronics

The University of York’s Laboratory for Spintronics and Nanodevices is another leading player in the science. This is directed by Professor Yongbing Xu, who collaborates extensively with several leading research groups and international companies in the UK and around the world.

Professor Xu is also is leading the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Grand Challenge Project on Spintronics. WUN is a network of 15 research-intensive institutions across five continents which aims “to build research projects which tackle issues of global significance.” Aside from York, other UK universities in the WUN Spintronics Consortium include The University of Southampton, The University of Bristol and the University of Sheffield. Overseas universities include The University of Sydney, and Nanjing University and Zhejiang University in China.

In 2008, York held joint research seminars with Nanjing University which led to the creation of the Joint Centre for Spintronics Research. York Spintronics also collaborates with leading IT companies including hard-drive and storage solutions manufacturer Seagate Research, established in Pittsburgh, USA; California-based Hewlett Packard and Toshiba.

Meanwhile, research at the London Centre for Nanotechnology is attracting the attention of various commercial companies – both in and out of the IT sector.

Says Professor Aeppli: “The UK is a strong player in medicine and pharmaceuticals, so we’re now looking to see what kind of impact nanospintronics can have on instrumentation for medical diagnostics. For instance, one project we are part of uses magnetic nanoparticles to enhance the detection of the AIDS virus.”