By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

South Korean researchers reported the first ever creation of a spin field-effect transistor, which had previously existed only in theory, claiming it to be a breakthrough in the emerging field of spintronics.

Short for spin-based electronics and also called magnetoelectronics, spintronics, is an up-and-coming technology that focuses on the harnessing of the spin of particles, with the ultimate goal of unlocking infinite computing power and storage from the process.

In a study published by peer-review journal, Science, a team of Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) researchers led by Han Suk-hee described the demonstration of a spin-injected field effect transistor, which is based on a semiconducting channel with two ferromagnetic electrodes.

The transistor's basic structure of source, gate and drain is similar to the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) model used for making microprocessors and other integrated circuits. However, Han's transistor is different in that the source and drain are made of ferromagnetic materials and that the injected spins are controlled by gate voltage.

Han said the research team has applied for patents for the technology described in the Science paper to a number of countries including the United States, Japan and European countries.

``If commercialized, spin-field effect transistors will have an enormous economic effect as it can be used for making logic devices with theoretically infinite power and storage, without making the devices get so hot. There will be a time when computers will be able to boot immediately without hesitation and the storage and microprocessors will be replaced by a single chip,'' Han said.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr