Making the switch, by this time with an insulator read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/761-making-the-switch-by-this-time-with-an-insulator

The existing field of spin electronics tells us, electrons like a top, carry angular momentum, and can be controlled as units of power, free of conventional electric current.

Based on spin torques these spinning electrons has been recently commercialized as STT-MRAM (spin transfer torque-magnetic random access memory).

Physicists from University of Colorado have demonstrated a new approach, which could prove useful in the application of low-power computer memory. They demonstrated a new way to switch magnetic moments or direction of magnetization of electrons in a thin film of a barium ferrite, which is a magnetic insulator.

Switching magnetic moments of electrons in an insulator could prove to be a major breakthrough in spintronic, by allowing a spin current-based memory storage device to be simpler, and also maintain more efficiency per electron.

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) key for information storage, in this case originates from the intrinsic magneto-crystalline anisotropy of the insulator, rather than interfacial anisotropy in other cases.

The CSU researcher’s device does something bigger it demonstrates the possibility of a new class of materials for spintronic.

"What's exciting about this is that it's an enabling technology for exploring an entirely different class of configurations, some of which are theorized to be useful," said Jake Roberts, professor and chair of the Department of Physics.

This project was performed in collaboration with researchers at University of Alabama, Argonne National Laboratory, University of Notre Dame, and University of Wyoming.