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Clever manipulation of electrons has enabled scientists to change a key property of light emitted by a device using electrically controlled magnetization. The method could lead to stable and energy-efficient information transfer.
Advances in information technology have a tremendous impact on people’s lives, but they come with massive increases in the power required to store, process and transmit huge amounts of data1. This issue can be remedied by encoding information not only in the charge of electrons, as is the case for conventional electronics, but also in electrons’ intrinsic angular momentum (spin), through a branch of electronics known as spintronics. Spintronic computer memories are expected to replace existing memories, but the information encoded in spin is transmitted most efficiently with light, which requires optimization of yet another technology, called photonics. In a paper in Nature, Dainone et al.2 have manipulated light by electrically controlling the magnetization of a material, paving the way for efficient information technologies that seamlessly integrate electronics, spintronics and photonics.