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First light on orbitronics as a viable alternative to electronics

An effect that transfers information using the rotational motion of electrons has been detected with light, forging a path towards technologies that are cheaper — and less harmful to the environment — than existing electronics.
  1. Tatiana G. Rappoport

    1. Tatiana G. Rappoport is at the Physics Center of Minho and Porto Universities (CF-UM-UP) and the Department of Physics, University of Minho, P-4710-057 Braga, Portugal.

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Almost two decades ago, physicists detected a phenomenon known as the spin Hall effect1,2, in which an electric field separates the electrons in a material on the basis of their intrinsic angular momentum, or ‘spin’. This discovery stimulated the field of spintronics, which is a branch of electronics that uses spin — as well as electric charge — to transfer and store data. Writing in Nature, Choi et al.3 report the direct detection of a related phenomenon, called the orbital Hall effect, in which the field sorts electrons according to their orbital angular momentum, which is related to their rotational motion. The prospect of encoding data in orbitals has been dubbed orbitronics, and could lead to the development of environmentally friendly electronic devices.

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Nature 619, 38-39 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02072-z

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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