Dr. Stuart S. P. Parkin, Dr. Hyunsoo Yang and Dr. See-Hun Yang at IBM Research-Almaden, Dr. Saburo Takahashi at Tohoku University, and Director Sadamichi Maekawa at Advanced Science Research Center of Japan Atomic Energy Agency have discovered that the lifetime of spin-polarized quasiparticles injected into a superconductor from ferromagnetic tunnel spin injectors is unexpectedly long. The lifetime of the spins (akin to particles spinning around their own axis) in the superconducting state is about a million times longer than that in the normal conducting state. This feature is essential to the development of sensors with ultra-high sensitivity and quantum-bits for future super-fast quantum computers. These findings will be published in the scientific journal “Nature Materials” as an Advanced Online Publication on June 6th, 2010.

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[Contact]

Sadamichi Maekawa, Director

Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC)

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)

Tokai 319-1195, Japan

Phone: +81-29-282-5093, Fax : +81-29-282-5927

E-mail: maekawa.sadamichi*jaea.go.jp  (Replace * with @)

Kelly Sims

IBM Communications - IBM Research

Office: +1-408.927.1261

Mobile: +1-630.235.8751

Fax: +1-408.927.3011

E-mail: kelly.sims*us.ibm.com  (Replace * with @)

Saburo Takahashi

Institute for Materials Research (IMR) Tohoku University

Sendai 980-8577, Japan

Phone: +81-22-215-2008

E-mail: takahasi*imr.tohoku.ac.jp (Replace * with @)