A breakthrough in spintronics has been achieved by modifying LEDs to control electron spin using a new chiral material, enabling more efficient data processing and promising advancements in electronic device capabilities. (Artist’s concert). Credit: SciTechDaily.com
The chiral spin filter, crafted from hybrid organic-inorganic halide perovskite material, allowed conventional LEDs to manipulate the spin orientation of electrons at room temperature without requiring ferromagnets or a magnetic field, overcoming a major barrier to commercial spintronics.
Recent advancements in spintronics have led to the development of modified LEDs that control electron spin without ferromagnets or magnetic fields, using a new spin filter made from chiral hybrid organic-inorganic halide perovskites. This technology, which allows for more efficient data processing by assigning binary values to electron spin states, marks a significant leap forward in integrating spintronics with existing semiconductor technologies.
Traditional electronics use 
Stack of the spin-LED emitting circularly polarized electroluminescence. The (R-MBA2Pbl) acts as a spin filter, allowing only polarized carriers (blue circles) to flow through the LED and recombine in the multiple quantum wells (MQW)s emitting circularly polarized light (yellow helix). Credit: Hautzinger, M. et al. Nature (2024)
“It’s a miracle. For decades, we’ve been unable to efficiently inject spin-aligned electrons into semiconductors because of the mismatch of metallic ferromagnets and non-magnetic semiconductors,” said Valy Vardeny, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the U and co-author of the paper. “All kinds of devices that use spin and optoelectronics, like spin-LEDs or magnetic memory, will be thrilled by this discovery.”
The study was recently published in the journal Nature.
Spin filters
In 2021, the same collaborators developed the technology that acts as an active spin filter made of two successive layers of material, called chiral hybrid organic-inorganic halide perovskites. Chirality describes a molecule’s symmetry, where its mirror image cannot be superimposed on itself. Human hands are the classic example; hold yours out, palms facing away. The right and left hands are arranged as mirrors of one another—you can flip your right hand 180° to match the silhouette, but now the right palm is facing you while the left palm faces away. They’re not the same.
Some molecules, such as DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07560-4
The work was supported as part of the Center for Hybrid Organic Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy (CHOISE) Energy Frontier Research Center in the U.S. Department of Energy, and the French National Research Agency.
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