Institute puts spin on science

The recent launch of a new nanoelectronics institute at UCLA
marks the beginning of one of the world’s largest
joint-research programs dealing with the emerging field of
spintronics, in which researchers hope to find ways to make
everyday electronics require significantly less power to
operate.

The institute, called the Western Institute of Nanoelectronics,
is to be headquartered at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of
Engineering and Applied Science, with other facilities at UC
Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and Stanford University. These schools
are also involved in the research program.

The institute is funded by $14.38 million in industrial support
through a Nanoelectronics Research Initiative grant and additional
grants from Intel Corporation.

In spintronics the spin of an electron is used to carry
information, which researchers believe could result in minimizing
power consumption of future electronics.

Information-processing technology traditionally depends on
devices that move electronic charges around without using the spin
that accompanies each electron. The total amount of power needed
would be reduced by using this spin through spintronics
technology.

UCLA electrical engineering Professor Kang Wang, who is set to
be the director of the institute, said the immediate goal of
researchers is to make electronics more efficient.

Current electronics operate on complementary metal-oxide
semiconductor standards. Spintronics would allow for the creation
of smaller devices that function more efficiently than devices
based on these standards, Wang said.

James Harris ““ a professor of electrical engineering,
applied physics and materials science at Stanford ““ has known
Wang for over 30 years and is now a part of the institute’s
research program. He said something researchers must keep in mind
while studying spintronics is the fact that what they produce goes
beyond what is currently available.

“Silicon technology is so incredibly advanced that going
beyond it is a challenge,” he said.

“(Spintronics) is just using a state of the electron, a
property that we’ve never used before, to see if (in)
utilizing that property we can indeed perform all of the functions
that are needed in a suitably compact, low-power and high-density
way (so that) it can compete with silicon technology.”

Harris said the potential effects of spintronics are
far-reaching.

“If anybody’s successful, it’s going to have a
worldwide impact. That’s why people are quite excited. (The
program) is aggregating some of the leading people in the
world,” he said.

Wang said the field of health care and “almost all aspects
of daily life” might feel the effects of the research of him
and his colleagues.

But Harris said that although the project could be significantly
beneficial, it will be a challenge for many reasons, including
outside pressure from individuals following the research.

“The main thing is people’s expectations are so high
that they think something’s going to happen in a year or two.
I think it’s going to take some serious work, and it will
take some ups and downs,” he said. “One day
something’s not working and you wake up the next day and you
have new ideas and it works. The potential (effect) is huge and
someone has to stick with it long enough to bear it out (and see)
if it’s going to bear fruit.”

Leonard Rome, assistant director of the California NanoSystems
Institute at UCLA, said programs such as the institute are positive
because it allows people to operate on campus in ways that were
previously impossible. Rome works in the area of nanoscience called
“nanomedicine,” which involves developing new materials
for designing bones and artificial organs.

It is important in the nanoscience field for research to be open
and not morph into a “secretive-industry-type” of
research, he said.

Harris said that though there are many challenges in the study
of spintronics and electronic efficiency, it will be worth it.

“(When people) focus on a big problem like this some
really good things come out of it,” he said.