Physicists turn toward heat to study electron spin

The quest to control and understand the intrinsic spin of electrons to advance nanoscale electronics is hampered by how hard it is to measure tiny, fast magnetic devices. Applied physicists at Cornell offer a solution: using heat, instead of light, to measure magnetic systems at short length and time scales. Researchers led by Greg Fuchs, assistant professor of applied and engineering physics, detail this new way to directly measure magnetic moments and how it may be used to break fundamental limits of spatial resolution that are imposed in purely optical magnetic measurements. Such a breakthrough, if perfected, could lead to a novel tabletop magnetic measurement technique and new, nanoscale electronic devices based on electrical spin, rather than charge. Their technique, which they call TRANE (Time-Resolved Anomalous Nernst Effect) microscopy, is detailed (Sept. Why the interest in electron spin? In physics, electron spin is the well-established phenomenon of electrons behaving like a quantum version of a spinning top, and the angular momentum of these little tops pointing "up" or "down." An emerging field called spintronics explores the idea of using electron spin to control and store information using very low power. Technologies like nonvolatile magnetic memory could result with the broad understanding and application of electron spin.