Issue 2, 2017 - Graphene achieves spin filtration at room temperature

Graphene achieves spin filtration
at room temperature According to the US "IEEE Spectroscopy" magazine, scientists at the US Naval Laboratory placed a layer of graphene between the nickel layer and the iron layer to create the first thin-film junction device that can filter spin at room temperature, and the latest research will contribute to the development
of the next generation of magnetic random access memory (MRAM).
The latest equipment produced in this research is a case in point
.
Essentially, the new device is like a filter that lets only electrons with some kind of spin through; Blocking electrons with other spins ensures that the electrons' upward and downward polarization are distinguished from each other, creating the digital logic "0" and "1"
.

In research published in the American Chemical Society journal Nano, scientists are studying the conductivity of laminated graphene films and their interactions
with other materials.
To this end, they came up with a new method to "plant" large multilayer graphene thin layers directly on a smooth crystalline nickel alloy film, a process that managed to preserve the magnetism of the nickel alloy film, allowing them to turn the nickel film into a junction array
.

The researchers explain that the spin filtration phenomenon in the new architecture is the result of the interaction between the quantum mechanical properties of graphene and the quantum mechanical properties of crystalline nickel films, and when the nickel layer is aligned with the graphene layer, only electrons with a specific spin can be transferred from one substance to another
.