Move Over Spintronics, Here Comes Magnonics to the Rescue of Electronics – IEEE Spectrum

http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/devices/move-over-spintronics-here-comes-magnonics-to-the-rescue-of-electronics

 European collaborative research center called Spin+X has offered a prototype of a device that leverages something called spin waves that may offer a way forward. Spin waves are the synchronous waves of electron spin alignment observed in a magnetic system. If the prototype is any indication, then researcher may have another avenue to explore when traditional electronics reaches its physical limits.

“Basically, spintronics still requires electric currents but usually restricts these currents to consisting only of spin-up or spin-down electrons, thus providing an additional degree of freedom to process or encode information,” explains Fischer. “However, magnonics can operate without any electric currents by only relying on the propagation of spin waves in a magnetic material as a carrier of information.”