Naval Research Laboratory scientists will next month describe a technique that could bring next-generation spintronics–silicon semiconductors that encode bits based on the spin of individual electrons–a step closer.

“Our demonstration showed a 30 percent polarization of the injected electrons, which is not bad considering that polarizaiton of electrons in magnetic metals is about 45 percent,” said lead scientist Berend Jonker. “Now we want to build an electronic detector, rather than use an LED, as the next step toward silicon spintronics.”