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

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.