Spintronics, a portmanteau word meaning “spin transport electronics”, is the use of a fundamental property of particles known as “electron spin” for information processing. Electron spin can be detected as a magnetic field with one of two orientations: up and down. This provides an additional two binary states to the conventional low and high logic values, which are represented by simple currents. Carrying information in both the charge and spin of an electron potentially offers devices with a greater diversity of functionality.

So far, spintronic technology has been tested in information-storage devices, such as hard drives and spin-based transistors. Spintronics technology also shows promise for digital electronics in general. The ability to manipulate four, rather than only two, defined logic states may result in greater information-processing power, higher data transfer speed, and higher information-storage capacity.

It is expected that spin transport electronic devices will be smaller, more versatile and more robust compared with their silicon counterparts. So far this technology is in the early development stage and, irrespective of intense research, we have to wait a couple of years to see the first commercial spin-based electronic chip.