Toward Functional Spintronics

Abstract

Traditional semiconductor technology is based entirely on exploiting electron charge. Researchers are now investigating ways to use both electronic properties and electron spin simultaneously in semiconductors. The goal is the development of spintronic devices that integrate processing and storage capabilities thus far carried out separately. In his Perspective, Ohno highlights a new material developed by Matsumoto et al., a transparent room-temperature ferromagnetic semiconductor that may in the future be used in integrated circuit-storage-display units, for example, in electronic paper.