Science Daily March 14, 2018
Researchers in Italy have demonstrated that hexagonal graphene nanoflakes with zigzag edges display quantum interference. In “Quantum interference transistors” destructive interference would be the “OFF” status. For the “ON” status, they say it is sufficient to remove the conditions for interference. They also demonstrated that magnetism emerges spontaneously at their edges, without any external intervention. This enables the creation of a spin current. The union between the phenomena of quantum interference and of magnetism would allow to obtain almost complete spin polarization, with a huge potential in the field of spintronics. These properties could be used, for example, in the memorizing and processing information technologies, interpreting the spin as binary code… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
On the left: This is a spin filter made of a magnetic nanoflake. On the right: Schematic illustration of the device and plot of the spin-filtering efficiency. Credit: Angelo Valli