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Recent research from Professor of Chemistry in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and Dietrich School Research Associate opens new possibilities in the field of “spintronics,” which aims to produce devices that harness the spin of electrons rather than their charge.

“One of the goals in spintronics is to move spin information through a material without also having to move the associated charge, because moving the charge takes more energy — it’s why your phone and computer get hot when you use them for a long time,” Waldeck told North Carolina State University.

By moving spin current through two cobalt oxide thin films — materials that have a “handedness” such that they’re different from their mirror image — the team discovered that spin only passes through the material in specific orientations. along with colleagues at NC State in the journal Science Advances on May 3.

The results highlight the possibility of creating gateways in these materials through which spin can pass in only one direction, a property that could find use in new approaches to data storage, communication and computing.