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Ultra-high mobility electron gas can increase information transfer speed & data storage density in quantum devices

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Science & Technology
  • Published
    13th Jan, 2021

Context

  • Scientists at INST, Mohali, Punjab have produced an ultra-high mobility 2d-electron gas (2DEG).

Basics of the Study

  • The need for attaining new functionalities in modern electronic devices has led to the manipulation of property of an electron called spin degree of freedom along with its charge.
  • This has given rise to an altogether new field of spin-electronics or ‘spintronics’.
  • The strong spin-orbit coupling and relativistic nature of the electrons in the 2DEG resulted in the ‘Rashba field’.
  • It has been realized that a phenomenon called the ‘Rashba effect’, which consists of splitting of spin-bands in an electronic system, might play a key role in spintronic devices.

Key-highlights of the findings

Scientists have produced an ultra-high mobility 2d-electron gas (2DEG) at the interface of two insulating oxide layers with

  • Ultra-high mobility, which can speed up transfer of quantum information
  • Signal from one part of a device to another
  • Increase data storage and memory
  • next-generation data storage media and quantum computers

Figure showing device configuration, Quantum oscillation in the resistance, and Spin-Momentum electronic band splitting revealed through transport measurements

Significance of the findings

  • The research may open up a new field of device physics, especially in the field of quantum technology applicable for next-generation data storage media and quantum computers.
  • Due to the high mobility of the electron gas, electrons do not collide inside the medium for a long distance and hence do not lose the memory and information.
  • A system can easily remember and transfer its memory for a long time and distance.
  • In addition, since they collide less during their flow, their resistance is very low, and hence they don’t dissipate energy as heat.
  • Such devices do not heat up easily and need less input energy to operate. 

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