Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Applied physics

Spintronics gets a magnetic flute

Nature volume 425, pages 359–360 (2003)Cite this article

Magnetic-memory devices of the future could be based on 'spintronics', through switching the directions of electron spins. New work confirms the physics behind a spin-switching mechanism.

Progress in understanding the microscopic behaviour of electrons continues to open up new frontiers for materials and device research, and vice versa. Watching how electrons move, at high current density, through structures that are less than 100 nm in size has revealed a wealth of new physics based on the 'spin' properties of these particles, and potentially a new class of electronic device: a spin-transfer switch for magnetic-memory 'spintronics'. Experiments reported by Kiselev et al.1, on page 380 of this issue, have now proved the nature of the physics at play.

Your institute does not have access to this article

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Magnetic excitation and switching through spin transfer.

References

  1. Kiselev, S. I. et al. Nature 425, 380–383 (2003).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Slonczewski, J. C. J. Magn. Mag. Mater. 159, L1–L7 (1996); 195, L261–L268 (1999).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Berger, L. Phys. Rev. B 54, 9353–9358 (1996).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bazaliy, Y. B., Jones, B. A. & Zhang, S.-C. Phys. Rev. B 57, R3213–R3216 (1998).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Sun, J. Z. J. Magn. Mag. Mater. 202, 157–162 (1999).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Tsoi, M. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 4281–4284 (1998).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Wegrowe, J. E., Kelly, D., Jaccard, Y., Guittienne, P h. & Ansermet, J.-Ph. Europhys. Lett. 45, 626–632 (1999).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Katine, J. A., Albert, F. J., Buhrman, R. A., Myers, E. B. & Ralph, D. C. Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3149–3152 (2000).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Tsoi, M. et al. Nature 406, 46–48 (2000).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBM Research Division, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, PO Box 218, Yorktown Heights, 10598, New York, USA

    Jonathan Sun

Authors
  1. Jonathan Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sun, J. Spintronics gets a magnetic flute. Nature 425, 359–360 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/425359a

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/425359a

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing