"CHIPS: Electron spin detector may yield denser chips"
Spin-dependent transistors could one day harness electron spin to encode up to 10 states (as opposed to binary logic's mere two) in single-electron devices-enabling chips with a million times the density of today's memories, according to the University of Arkansas. A precise understanding of how an electron's spin rotates as it moves through a material could enable such single-electron, spin-dependent devices. Unfortunately, there has been no instrument available to measure electron spin, so even the first step toward a spin-dependent computer has not been taken-that is, to carefully characterize the properties of a spin-dependent transistor, according to Paul Thibado, associate professor of physics at the University of Arkansas.
Text: http://eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=23900729