A research group consisting of researchers from Tohoku University, Kyoto University, Toho University, and Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Corporation has established a method to polarize the electron spin in one direction on semiconductors without the use of ferromagnetic materials or an external magnetic field. This experiment actualized the Stern-Gerlach effect, a basic principle in quantam mechanics, inside a nanoscale semiconductor.

The research results have been published September 25 (26 JST), 2012 on the British online science journal Nature Communications. The paper's title is "Spin-orbit induced electronic spin separation in semiconductor nanostructures".

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[Contact]

Associate Professor Makoto Kohda

Laboratory of Materials Quantum Science

Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University

Address: 6-6-2 Aoba Aramaki Aoba-ku Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8579, Japan

TEL: +81-22-795-7317, Fax：+81-22-795-7317

E-mail：makoto*material.tohoku.ac.jp (Replace * with @)