Have you ever tried to move a small magnet around a bigger one? Or tried to pull a magnet off a larger one? The struggles you experience are caused by magnetic forces, whose powers are also manifested in electron spins.
Electrons can be compared to balls of spinning matter; the direction in which they rotate determines where their north and south poles are located. Learning to manipulate electrons’ magnetic properties may aid in the development of electronic technology. John Colton of the Department of Physics and Astronomy is conducting research to alter the direction of an electron’s rotation with greater control.
“I’ve been doing experiments where we can change the direction of the electron spins,” Colton said. “The question is: how would you go about changing the directions of their spins?”
With the aid of lasers, microwaves and a large magnet, he and his fellow researchers have been studying the circular motion of electrons in gallium arsenide (GaAs), which is the second most used semi-conductor in the world. They have successfully manipulated the electrons’ spins, and have noticed that they are negatively affected by nearby nuclei — a nearby nucleus may counteract the rotation that a researcher is trying to achieve in an electron. Understanding any opposing forces will help researchers to control electrons with greater precision.
Currently, computers make calculations using tiny on/off switches made of semi-conductors. However, if electrons and their spin tendencies can become fully controllable, then an array of spins could be used to make the switches and represent the 1’s and 0’s of computations. This type of computing, based upon aligning the spins of electrons, is called “quantum computing.”
“This is the ‘Holy Grail’ of spin research,” Colton said of the quantum computer. “Such a computer would be much more powerful than a regular computer because it could solve problems currently impossible for today’s computers.”
With the help of Colton’s work, the ideal of a quantum computer may someday be reached — and computing technology could achieve a whole new level of performance.