Diamonds can make computers faster

In an experiment done at Ohio State University, physicist demonstrated that we can transmit the information through diamond to be precise through diamond wire and it’s because of “Spintronics”. Researchers worldwide are working to develop so-called “Spintronics,” which could make computers simultaneously faster and more powerful.

As said by the scientists team, In the experiment, electrons did not flow through diamond as they do in traditional electronics; rather, they stayed in place and passed along a magnetic effect called “spin” to each other down the wire—like we do “the wave” thing in soccer match.

What is Spin? Spintronics?

In quantum mechanics and particle physics, spin is an intrinsic form of angular momentum carried by elementary particles, composite particles, and atomic nuclei. It arises when a particle executes a rotating or twisting trajectory such as when an electron orbits a nucleus. In some ways, spin is like a vector quantity; it has a definite magnitude; and it has a “direction”.
Spintronics emerged from discoveries in the 1980s concerning spin-dependent electron transport phenomena in solid-state devices. The origins of Spintronics can be traced back even further to the ferromagnet/superconductor tunneling experiments of the 1970s.
Though, diamond couldn’t carry spin at all, because its carbon atoms are locked together, with each electron firmly attached to a neighboring electron, According to lead investigator, Chris Hammel, Eminent Experimental Physics Scholar, Oho State, “Diamond has a lot going for it when it comes to Spintronics. It’s hard, transparent, electrically insulating, impervious to environmental contamination, resistant to acids, and doesn’t hold heat as semiconductors do.”
The Experiment - In the experiment physicists were able to observe electron spin. They focused the magnetic field in their microscope on individual portions of the only four micrometers long and 200 nanometers wide wire, they set the magnetic coil in the microscope to switch on and off over tiny fractions of a second, generating pulses that created 15-nanometer (about 50-atoms) wide snapshots of electron behavior
When a magnet on a delicate cantilever moved minute amounts as it was alternatively attracted or repelled by the atoms in the wire, depending on their spin states they knew that spin was flowing through the diamond.
The researchers had to seed the wire with nitrogen atoms in order for there to be unpaired electrons that could spin. The wire contained just one nitrogen atom for every three million diamond atoms, but that was enough to enable the wire to carry spin. They had to chill the wire to 4.2 Kelvin (about -452 degrees Fahrenheit or -269 degrees Celsius) to slow down the spins and to quiet their sensitive detector enough to make these few spins detectable.
The Result – Spin states inside the wire lasted for about 15 milliseconds, and near the end they lasted for 30 milliseconds. According to Hammel, “It’s a dramatically huge effect that we were not anticipating. The discovery challenges the way researchers have studied spin for the last 70 years”.
Nobody could see the spins in diamond before, but this experiment proved that diamond can transport spin in an organized way, preserving spin state—and, thus, preserving information.
Spin could one day be used to transmit data in computer circuits—and this new experiment, done at The Ohio State University, revealed that diamond transmits spin better than most metals.
Because this new world is always exploring new things for the faster, reliable and secure transmission medium, the discoveries made by this experiment will impact the near and far future.