Lasers Reveal Spintronic Secrets
BOULDER, Colo., Feb. 20, 2007 -- Physicists are using ultrashort pulses of laser light to reveal precisely why some electrons, like ballet dancers, hold their spin positions better than others -- work that may help improve spintronic devices, which exploit the magnetism or "spin" of electrons in addition to or instead of their charge.
One thing spinning electrons like, it turns out, is some disorder, the physicists at JILA discovered. JILA is a joint venture of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and...