<p>In a first, physicists have demonstrated that information can flow through a diamond wire in a much efficient way that could make computers faster and more powerful.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Researchers worldwide are working to develop so-called 'spintronics' to begin a new information processing era.<br /><br />"Diamond has a lot going for it when it comes to spintronics," said lead investigator Chris Hammel, Ohio Eminent Scholar in experimental physics at Ohio State University.<br /><br />It is hard, transparent, electrically insulating, impervious to environmental contamination, resistant to acids and does not hold heat as semiconductors do.<br /><br />In the experiment, electrons did not flow through diamond as they do in traditional electronics.<br /><br />Rather, they stayed in place and passed along a magnetic effect called 'spin' to each other down the wire - like a row of sports spectators doing 'the wave'.<br /><br />"Basically, it is inert. You can not do anything to it. To a scientist, diamonds are kind of boring, unless you are getting engaged. But it is interesting to think about how diamond would work in a computer," Hammel added.<br /><br />This discovery could change the way researchers study spin.<br /><br />"The fact that spins can move like this means that the conventional way that the world measures spin dynamics on the macroscopic level has to be reconsidered - it is actually not valid," he noted.<br /><br />Nobody could see the spins in diamond before, but this experiment proved that diamond can transport spin in an organised way, preserving spin state - and, thus, preserving information.<br /><br />The finding appeared in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.</p>
<p>In a first, physicists have demonstrated that information can flow through a diamond wire in a much efficient way that could make computers faster and more powerful.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Researchers worldwide are working to develop so-called 'spintronics' to begin a new information processing era.<br /><br />"Diamond has a lot going for it when it comes to spintronics," said lead investigator Chris Hammel, Ohio Eminent Scholar in experimental physics at Ohio State University.<br /><br />It is hard, transparent, electrically insulating, impervious to environmental contamination, resistant to acids and does not hold heat as semiconductors do.<br /><br />In the experiment, electrons did not flow through diamond as they do in traditional electronics.<br /><br />Rather, they stayed in place and passed along a magnetic effect called 'spin' to each other down the wire - like a row of sports spectators doing 'the wave'.<br /><br />"Basically, it is inert. You can not do anything to it. To a scientist, diamonds are kind of boring, unless you are getting engaged. But it is interesting to think about how diamond would work in a computer," Hammel added.<br /><br />This discovery could change the way researchers study spin.<br /><br />"The fact that spins can move like this means that the conventional way that the world measures spin dynamics on the macroscopic level has to be reconsidered - it is actually not valid," he noted.<br /><br />Nobody could see the spins in diamond before, but this experiment proved that diamond can transport spin in an organised way, preserving spin state - and, thus, preserving information.<br /><br />The finding appeared in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.</p>