Physicists from the University of Groningen established a two-dimensional swirl transistor, in which spin currents were produced by an electric current through graphene.
A monolayer of a growth metal dichalcogenide (TMD) was positioned on top of graphene to provoke charge-to-spin modification in the graphene. This practical observation was interpreted in the issue of the journal Nano Letters circulated on 11 September 2019.
Spintronics is an impressive alternative way of establishing low-power electronic equipment. It is not established on a charge current yet on a current of electron spins. Spin is a quantum mechanical equity of an electron, a magnetic juncture that could be used to transport or store information.
Graphene which a 2D form of carbon, is an outstanding spin transporter. However, with respect to create or manipulate spins, the interchange of its electrons with the atomic nuclei is required: spin-orbit coupling.
This interchange is very weak in carbon, making it hard to generate or utilize spin currents in graphene. However, it has been indicated that spin-orbit coupling in graphene will improve when a monolayer of material with enormous atoms (such as a TMD) is placed on prime, establishing a Van der Waals heterostructure.
In the Physics of Nanodevices group, Professor Bart van Wees at the University of Groningen who was leading it and a Ph.D. student Talieh Ghiasi and postdoctoral researcher Alexey Kaverzin established such a heterostructure. Utilizing gold electrodes, they were able to supply a pure charge current through the graphene and build up a spin current, referred to as the Rashba-Edelstein effect.
This transpires due to the interaction with the enormous atoms of the TMD monolayer (in this case, tungsten disulfide). This adequately known effect was seen for the first time in graphene that was in the vicinity of other 2D materials.
The charge current supplies a spin current in the graphene, which they could gauge with spin-selective ferromagnetic cobalt electrodes as it is said by Ghiasi.
